Idyll – Quiz | shortsonline

Idyll – General Understanding Quiz

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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

2 B R 0 2 B
Short Story by Kurt Vonnegut. This Earth of the future appears perfect. There are no poor, no slums, no prisons, no wars. There is no insanity, disability or disease. Even aging has been cured. Everything is wonderful... unless you want to bring a child into the world.
The Mispaired Anklet
Tamil Legend. A devoted wife stands by her husband despite his infidelity. He repents, and they move to another city. When he is framed for theft and summarily executed, she calls on the gods and has the city destroyed. Later, she learns that her fate was the result of karma.
Dead Stars
Short Story by Paz Marquez Benitez. Set in a culture and time where honor outweighs love, a young lawyer delays marrying his fiancé because it doesn’t feel right. Although he falls in love with another woman, he keeps his word, marries the fiancé, and dreams of the other.
The Fiddler
Short Story by Herman Melville. A struggling writer is in a desperate mood after negative reviews of his latest work. His life changes when he learns the secret of a “commonplace” man who appears to have no special talents but is able to live life to the fullest.
A Girl Like Phyl
Novelette by Patricia Highsmith. A chance meeting with an eighteen-year-old girl at an airport revives bittersweet memories for a successful, seemingly happily married businessman. The girl, who bears a striking resemblance to his long obsessed over ex-girlfriend Phyl, later ends up in his hotel room and tries to seduce him.

The Boogeyman
Short Story by Stephen King. A man with serious mental problems blames himself for the death of his three children. He thinks a monster from his childhood killed them, and that it is now coming after him. Readers are left wondering who or what this boogeyman really is.
Eleven
Grade 5-6 Story by Sandra Cisneros. A misunderstanding at school over an ugly red sweater spoils a girl’s eleventh birthday. The teacher thinks the sweater is hers and demands that she put in on. She does so but then breaks down in tears, embarrassing herself in front of the class.
The Man Who Loved Flowers
Short Story by Stephen King. A well-dressed young man walking down a New York City street one spring evening has the appearance of someone in love. The twist comes when he buys a bouquet of flowers, hands them to a young woman, and savagely beats her to death.
The Adulterous Woman
Short Story by Albert Camus. For the married protagonist, the vast expanse of the Algerian desert puts into perspective something she already knew but had refused to face. Although she has a caring and possibly still loving husband, married life has become mundane and, through lack of communication, lonely.
A Wife’s Story
Short Story by Bharati Mukherjee. The wife of an Indian textile executive undergoes a cultural transformation upon moving to New York to complete a doctoral degree. The change is emphasized as she accompanies her husband around the city during a short visit partway through the course.