Poison – Quiz | shortsonline

Poison- General Understanding Quiz

Back to our Information Page

See top menu for all 1,500+ stories

Approximate Reading Times

Quick Read: under 5 minutes
Short Story: 5 to 30 minutes
Novelette: 30 to 90 minutes
Novella: 1.5 to 2.5 hours

Other stories you may like:

The 400-Pound CEO
Short Story by George Saunders. A dark comedy in which a 400-pound man remains calm and optimistic about the future despite the indignation of being stuck in an unrewarding, distasteful job and suffering constant humiliation from colleagues. Things change when “a lifetime of scorn” boils over and he commits murder.
A Village After Dark
Short Story by Kazuo Ishiguro. A filthy, feeble old man dressed in rags returns to a village he left many years ago to “make amends”. We aren’t told what for, but older villagers are uneasy about his return while to the younger generation he is a cult-like hero.
A Handful of Dates
Short Story by Tayeb Salih. A young boy and his grandfather were once very close. In a “coming of age” event, the boy realizes that his grandfather has become rich and powerful by taking advantage of the misfortune of others, especially a neighbor whose land he is determined to own.
The Autopsy (Dissection)
Quick Read by Georg Heym. This early example of expressionist literature describes an autopsy in the form of a prose poem. The backstory of love and beauty humanizes the dead man, while extensive use of literary devices softens the gore and lends a surreal quality to the story.
A Silver Dish
Novelette by Saul Bellow. A small businessman devoted to supporting his dysfunctional extended family comes to grips with the death of his much loved con-man father. A turning point in his youth was his father’s theft of a silver dish, which caused his expulsion from seminary school.

The Kugelmass Episode
Short Story by Woody Allen. Kugelmass, bored with his “oafish” wife, wants a lustful extra-marital affair with no commitments. His wish comes true when a failed magician offers him a chance to seduce any woman from world literature. His first choice begins well, but ends badly; his second proves disastrous.
Inem
Short Story by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. A six-year-old boy’s best friend, an eight-year-old girl, is married off to a seventeen-year-old-man. Her family are neighbors, and for months afterwards he is kept awake by her screams at night. A year later she is divorced, a tainted “woman” facing a miserable future.
A Clean Well-Lighted Place
Quick Read by Ernest Hemingway. Two waiters (one young, the other middle-aged) talk about an old man sitting alone at one of their tables. The story reflects what many young people think of the old, and how some old people live their later years in emptiness and despair.
The Man with the Light
Short Story by José Eduardo Agualusa. During one of Angola’s many civil wars, an aging Russian entertainer comes to the attention of authorities. He watches in horror as the soldiers sent to find him savagely attack innocent bystanders and, in desperation, tries to think what “James Dean” would do.
Fairy Ointment
English Folktale. A strange looking man asks a nurse to help his sick wife look after their baby boy. His wife gives her some ointment to put on the baby's eyes. When she puts some of it on one of her own eyes, she learns the family’s secret.