The Pit and the Pendulum

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  

1. What is the famous first line of this story? There are few persons, even among the calmest thinkers... I was sick-sick unto death with that long agony... The sentence-the dread sentence of death... During the fall of the year 1827...

2. What phenomenon does the narrator discuss in great detail? the subconscious swooning human suffering painless death

3. What object does the narrator believe he is enclosed in after he recovers from his faint? a tomb a wooden box a wall an even smaller cell

4. What object does the narrator attempt to retrieve from his clothing? a small bit of food his handkerchief a lock pick a knife

5. When the narrator awoke from his first nap in the chamber, what did he find beside him? a letter and a rope a blanket and soup loaf of bread and a pitcher of water a quill and parchment

6. When the narrator explores his prison chamber, he believes it to be a rectangle of 100 yards in circuit. True False

7. Daring to walk across the chamber, the narrator trips on the torn hem of his robe and falls. He then makes a discovery that: his chin touches the floor, but his lips and upper head didn't touch solid surface there is another man in the chamber with him his calculations were off, the room is in fact 60 yards in circuit his captors have left wine and bread in the middle of the room

8. After the narrator's initial discovery, he becomes convinced there are deep wells throughout the chamber. True False

9. Why does a deep sleep overcome the narrator? lack of nutrition the exhaustion of scaling the chamber drugged water the fear brought on by the pit

10. The prison cell was constructed out of which material? brick sandstone iron wood

11. The narrator is placed upon a wooden framework and bound tightly except for which two body parts? head and left arm his ankles his arms right arm and abdominal area

12. A noise coming from the pit attracts the narrator's attention. What animal began to issue from the hole? mice large, black bugs birds rats

13. The narrator suddenly becomes aware of a swinging pendulum descending very slowly from the ceiling. True False

14. The pendulum was meant to cross which part of the body? stomach brain face heart

15. Within sweeps of the deadly device, the narrator states that he did what for the first time in days? prayed smiled thought cried

16. The narrator believes that he can be freed from his bondage by letting the pendulum sweep across and cut the cords off of him. Is this how he is freed? Yes No

17. How soon after the narrator frees himself do his captors imprison him once more? 5 minutes later after several hours nearly a half an hour later less than 1 minute

18. The chamber walls begin to shift from the original form of a rectangle to what new shape? triangle circle diamond octagon

19. The narrator's fate at the end of "The Pit and the Pendulum": the French Army arrives and sets the prisioners free the captors push the narrator into the pit and rats soon devour his body the narrator faints and falls into the abyss an open ending doesn't let us know if the narrator lived or died

20. This story takes place in Toledo. True False