The Tell-Tale Heart Comprehension, Vocabulary, Mood & Tone Quiz

What does the narrator say that his disease has done to him?

• made him nervous

• sharpened his senses

• turned him into a murderer

• caused him to lie

The narrator waits a week before killing the old man because the narrator

• does not want to kill the old man, but must once he sees the old man's eye

• likes frightening the old man in the night

• must wait for the darkest night of the week

• feels guilty about taking a human life

You can evaluate the narrator's state of mind as unreliable when he

• explains that he did not kill the old man for his money

• describes his movements on the night of the murder

• says he is sane, but then describes how cleverly he hid the body

• confesses that he is nervous at the beginning of the story

The author creates suspense by

• revealing the ways in which the narrator is kind to the old man

• explaining why the narrator hid the body after the murder

• saying that the narrator loved the old man

• describing what the narrator did before the murder

Why is the narrator upset with the police at the end of the story?

• The police find the old man's body.

• The police accuse him of murder.

• He thinks the police are making fun of him.

• He thinks the police are trying to kill him.

What detail from the passage describes the old man's eye?

• He had the eye of a vulture - a pale blue eye with a film over it.

• I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and rid myself of the eye forever.

• It was open - wide, wide open - and I grew furious as I gazed upon it.

• ...but I could see nothing else of the old man's face or person...

What is the tone in literature?

• It is what the reader takes away from the literature.

• It is the attitude of the author toward the literature.

• It is the feeling the reader gets from the literature.

What is the mood in literature?

• It is the feeling the reader takes away from the literature.

• It is the attitude of the author toward the literature.

• It is the feeling the author has toward the literature.

What words may be used to describe the mood of The Tell-Tale Heart?

• optimistic, cheerful

• anxious, creepy

• sad, mournful

• nostalgic, warm

Read the following excerpt and identify the tone: "And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don’t know why they died, they just died. Something wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn’t the best. We complained about it. So we’ve got thirty kids there, each kid had his or her own little tree to plant and we’ve got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little brown sticks, it was depressing."

• The tone is joyful.

• The tone is irritated.

• The tone is heartwarming.

• The tone is depressing.