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WorksheetsTell-Tale Heart 2020
Total questions: 17
Worksheet time: 4hrs 15mins
What do we learn about the narrator when he asks the police officers to sit and rest in the same room where he’s hidden the body?
He is careless.
He feels confident.
He is rude.
He is forgetful.
What do we learn about the narrator from the following line?
“I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although I chuckled at heart.”
He likes comedy.
He is impatient.
He is cruel.
He is tired.
Upon the eighth night I was more than usually cautious in opening the door. A watch's minute hand moves more quickly than did mine. Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers, of my sagacity. I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph. To think that there I was opening the door little by little, and he not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts.
When opening the door to the old man's room on the eighth night, the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart” feels..
unusually frightened.
unexpectedly powerful.
no different than usual.
slightly chilly.
When I had waited a long time very patiently without hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little -- a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it -- you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily -- until at length a single dim ray like the thread of the spider shot out from the crevice and fell upon the vulture eye.
Why does the author include the simile in paragraph 8?
to help the reader visualize the ray of light.
to help the reader understand why he hates the eye.
to show the direction of the light in the old man's room.
to compare the spider to the vulture's eye.
TRUE! nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why WILL you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How then am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story.
Why does the author include hyperbole in the first paragraph?
To illustrate the battle between good and evil.
To illustrate how he believes he has excellent hearing.
To prove that he had a good reason to kill the old man.
To prove that he cannot be held accountable for his actions.
Yes he has been trying to comfort himself with these suppositions; but he had found all in vain. ALL IN VAIN, because Death in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him and enveloped the victim. And it was the mournful influence of the unperceived shadow that caused him to feel, although he neither saw nor heard, to feel the presence of my head within the room.
The personification in paragraph 7 emphasizes...
the fear the old man feels now that he is awake.
that there is no stopping death tonight.
the old man’s attempts to calm himself.
the mistake the narrator made when he made a noise.
No doubt I now grew VERY pale; but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice. Yet the sound increased -- and what could I do? It was A LOW, DULL, QUICK SOUND -- MUCH SUCH A SOUND AS A WATCH MAKES WHEN ENVELOPED IN COTTON. I gasped for breath, and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly, more vehemently but the noise steadily increased. I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations; but the noise steadily increased. Why WOULD they not be gone?
The author’s use of a simile in paragraph 17 emphasizes...
the cops’ mockery of him.
the sound of the heartbeats.
the narrator’s attempts to cover the noise.
the cops plan to force a confession from him.
What is ironic about the old man making sure that he is safe from robbers?
He has been robbed before.
He doesn’t seem concerned about his own safety.
The danger lives in his own home.
His neighbor is a thief, and he welcomes him in.
If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence.
What is ironic about paragraph 12?
His argument that he is not crazy because he had a careful plan to bury the body.
He dismembered the whole body even though he just hated the eye.
He was able to work quietly after he violently killed the man.
He commited murder, but he did not feel badly about it at all.
"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! -- tear up the planks! -- here, here! -- it is the beating of his hideous heart!"
Why is the ending of the story ironic?
The police interrogate him until he confesses
He called the policemen the villains and then confesses.
The police knew he did it all along and pretended he did not.
The man's eye turned out to be a truly evil villain.
Which word best describe the tone of the narrative?
desperate
melancholic
enraged
empowered
“But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern motionless.”
What is the mood of this passage?
suspenseful
unexciting
mocking
angry
Paragraphs 3-6 are mainly a description of -
How the author loved the old man and had no real reason to kill him
The details of the vulture eye and how it vexed the speaker so much to commit murder
How the old man was stricken with fear as he discovered the speaker in his room
The speaker’s strategy for infiltrating the man’s room and ridding himself of the eye
What is the best summary of the narrative?
An unnamed narrator insists on his sanity after murdering an old man with a "vulture eye". The eye has a film over it and caused the narrator’s blood to run cold. The eye was what vexed the narrator and caused him to kill the old man. After the old man’s death he finally had peace.
An unnamed narrator insists on his sanity after murdering an old man with a "vulture eye". The murder is planned, and he hides the body under the floorboards. The narrator's guilt turns into a hallucination that the man's heart is still beating under the floorboards. Guilt-stricken, he confesses to the police.
An unnamed narrator describes his love and adoration for the old man he lives with. He details the gruesome attack of the old man and bragged about how clever he was the whole time. Then, he is is plagued with grief due to the old man’s murder and goes to jail.
An unnamed narrator describes his hatred for an old man and the old man’s "vulture eye". In rage, he kills the old man and hides the body under the floorboards. When the police come, they could hear the old man’s heart beating under the floors, and arrest the narrator.
The old man trying to sleep and telling himself nobody is in the house is ironic because...
He knows the narrator is in the room.
There are crickets under the bed.
The narrator is watching him through the crevice
There is a mouse running around in the room.
What is the tone of the following passage?
“You should have seen how wisely I proceeded- with what caution - with what foresight - with what dissimulation I went to work!”
arrogant
careful
certainty
fearful
Which of the following pieces of text shows that the narrative is written in first person point of view?
Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God! -- no, no?
As the bell sounded the hour, there came a knocking at the street door.
And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses?
"It is nothing but the wind in the chimney, it is only a mouse crossing the floor,"
