Where Is Here?

The setting of “Where Is Here?” by Joyce Carol Oates is

• a chill, damp November evening at dusk.

• early morning, just before sunrise.

• a breezy afternoon in summer.

• a snowy day at a cottage in the mountains.

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At the beginning of Oates's story, the stranger says that he would like to

• meet the children in the house

• make an offer to buy the house

• take photographs of the house

• poke around

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Which of the following passages most clearly signals Oates’s gothic style in the story?

• “My father was a unique man. Everyone who knew him admired him.”

• “Mother too had plants on this windowsill but I don’t recall their ever blooming.”

• “I hate riddles—they’re moronic some of the time and obscure the rest of the time.”

• “I'm sorry,” the mother said. “Please don’t be,” the stranger said. “We’ve all been dead—they’ve all been dead—a long time.”

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Which event triggers the father’s abrupt intervention when he announces, “The visit is over”?

• the stranger’s insistence on going upstairs

• the stranger’s bursting into tears

• the stranger’s demonstration of a mathematical riddle

• the stranger’s request to sit on the basement steps in the dark

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As Oates portrays him in the story, the stranger is a person of

• zany humor

• fierce loyalty

• mysterious power

• absolute integrity

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Read the following excerpt from the last part of “Where Is Here?”:

In the living room he saw that the lights were flickering as if on the brink of going out; the patterned wallpaper seemed drained of color; a shadow lay upon it shaped like a bulbous cloud or growth.

Which of the following best characterizes this passage?

• a flashback to the stranger’s childhood

• an ironic reversal of the father's opinions about the stranger

• an ominous, otherworldly element

• a humorous reference to one of the stranger's remarks

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Which of the following identifies an important similarity between Roderick Usher in Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and the stranger in Oates’s “Where Is Here?”

• Both characters have a sister.

• Both characters are intensely sensitive.

• Roderick Usher and the stranger predict their own deaths.

• Both characters claim they can communicate with the spirit world.

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Which of the following is an accurate statement about the setting in the works by Poe and the story by Oates?

• The setting is not closely linked to the plot.

• In all three works, the setting is closely linked to the overall atmosphere, or mood.

• The cheerful setting contrasts with the characters' inner turmoil.

• The setting is only vaguely described.

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The works by Poe and Oates are similar in that they focus on which of the following?

• the precise, mathematical design of the universe

• the strange power of the irrational in human behavior

• tension between family members

• the beauty of nature

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