THE BLACK CAT
by Edgar Allan Poe
READING
The text of the story The Black Cat can be found here: http://www.americanliterature.com/author/edgar-allen-poe/short-story/the-black-cat
READING COMPREHENSION
1. Answer the following comprehension questions:
1) What is the setting of the story?
2) What information do the readers get about the main character?
3) What happens to his cat Pluto and why?
4) Does the narrator regret about his cruelty? Support your answer with the text.
5) How does the man’s wife suffer from him?
6) What happens after the fire? What is the mysterious phenomenon the man and people from the neighborhood observe?
7) Where does the narrator find another cat and why does he take it to his home?
8) What happens to the man’s wife? Is it a deliberate, cold-blooded murder or a spontaneous, heart-of-passion killing?
9) What does the man do to the corpse?
10) Is he afraid of the police?
11) What happens at the end of the story?
2. Complete the sentences below to compile a summary of the story. If necessary, use linking phrases and cohesive devices.
1) The narrator tells us that from an early age he has loved _____.
2) He and his wife have many pets, including a large black _____ named _____.
3) Their mutual friendship lasts for several years, until the narrator becomes an _____.
4) One night, after coming home intoxicated, he believes the cat is _____him.
5) When he tries to seize it, the panicked cat _____ the narrator.
6) Enraged, he seizes the animal, pulls a pen-knife from his pocket, and _____.
7) At first, the narrator is remorseful and _____ his cruelty.
8) But one morning he takes the cat out in the garden _____, where it dies.
9) That very night, his house mysteriously catches _____, forcing the narrator, his wife and their servant to flee.
10) The next day, the narrator returns to the ruins of his home to find, imprinted on the single wall that survived the fire, the figure of a _____, hanging by its neck from a rope.
11) Some time later, he finds _____ in a tavern. It is the same size and color as the original and is even missing _____.
12) The narrator takes it home, but soon begins to _____, even _____ the creature.
13) Then, one day when the narrator and his wife are visiting the _____ in their new home, the cat gets under its master's _____ and nearly trips him down the stairs.
14) In a fury, the man grabs _____ and tries to kill the cat but is stopped by _____. Enraged, he kills her with _____ instead.
15) To conceal _____ he removes bricks from a protrusion in the wall, places _____ there, and repairs the hole.
16) When the police came to _____, they find nothing and the narrator goes free.
17) The cat, which he intended to kill as well, has _____.
18) On the last day of the investigation, the narrator accompanies the police into _____.
19) Then, completely confident in his own _____, the narrator comments on the sturdiness of the building and raps upon the wall he had built around _____.
20) A wailing sound fills _____.
21) The alarmed police tear down the wall and find the wife's _____, and on her head, to the horror of the narrator, is _____.
22) As he words it: “I had walled the _____ up within the tomb!”
- Преподаватель: Еремеева Надежда Владимировна