"The Tell-Tale Heart" Selection Test

Situational irony is when a character or the reader expects one thing, but something very different happens or is true. Dramatic irony is when the reader knows something that a character does not know.

Which two are examples of irony in the story?

• The narrator’s attempts to hide the murder actually result in him giving himself up to the police.

• The narrator chooses to commit the murder in the middle of the night, when the old man is asleep.

• The more the narrator insists that he is not mad, the more readers can detect evidence of his madness.

• The narrator admits that he liked, even loved, the old man, and that he only objected to his pale, filmy eye.

• The neighbor hears the old man shriek and summons the police out of concern for his safety.

Tags

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.8.3

Foreshadowing occurs when a writer provides hints that suggest future events in a story, and it can help create suspense.

How does the narrator’s mention of his acute hearing in paragraph 1 foreshadow the old man’s death?

• It foreshadows the point when the old man’s heartbeat drives the narrator to kill him.

• It foreshadows his ability to hear the police coming when they respond to the old man’s murder.

• It foreshadows his decision to murder the old man because he was tired of listening to him.

• It foreshadows the moment when the old man hears the narrator at the door and wakes up.

Tags

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.8.3

In paragraph 2, the word conceived means to —

• become pregnant with a child

• have an opinion on an issue

• form a plan in the mind

• imagine something abstract

Tags

CCSS.L.8.4A

CCSS.RL.8.4

In paragraph 4, the narrator describes visiting the old man every night at midnight. Why is he unable to commit the murder for the first seven nights?

• The old man is a restless sleeper, so the narrator cannot sneak in.

• The narrator does not have enough light from the lantern to commit the murder.

• He is trying to be kind by giving the old man a few more days to live.

• He cannot see the old man’s eye, which is what he feels he needs to kill.

Tags

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.8.2

CCSS.RL.8.3

Which choice best expresses the main idea of paragraph 8?

• The old man stirs and cries out when he hears the narrator at the door and scares the narrator away.

• The narrator can relate to the old man’s fear, but that only makes the narrator feel more powerful.

• The narrator chooses to wake the old man so that he can face him directly for the murder.

• The narrator slips into the room when the old man wakes, hoping that the old man will not see him.

Tags

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RI.8.5

CCSS.RL.8.2

In paragraphs 14–15, the narrator describes his cleanup and first encounter with the police with a tone of —

• anxiety

• melancholy

• confidence

• indifference

Tags

CCSS.L.8.5C

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.8.4

Which word from paragraph 18 is closest to meaning contempt?

• agony

• derision

• swore

• hypocritical

Tags

CCSS.L.8.4A

CCSS.L.8.5C

CCSS.RL.8.4

Poe’s extensive use of dashes in the last two paragraphs is effective because it —

• highlights the narrator’s increased sense of nervousness

• slows down the story so that it is easier to understand

• suggests that the police know more than they are letting on

• allows the readers to understand the narrator’s motives

Tags

CCSS.L.8.2A

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.8.4

The use of a first-person narrator in the story —

• allows readers to understand each character’s point of view

• helps to explain how the characters are related to each other

• gives readers insight into the narrator’s mental instability

• illustrates how the old man treats the narrator every day

Tags

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.8.3

CCSS.RL.8.6

Choose the two lines from the story that best support the following idea:

The narrator cannot escape his guilty conscience.

• I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observation of men—but the noise steadily increased.

• Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me.

• . . . . I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work. . . . .

• . . . . I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling: but it continued and gained definitiveness— until at length, I found that the noise was not within my ears.

Tags

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.8.2

CCSS.RL.8.3