Oysters – 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

The New Food
Quick Read by Stephen Leacock. Although published way back in 1910, this story is surprisingly relevant to today’s world. It is a wonderful satire of heavily processed convenience foods and the contribution they make towards child obesity, culminating in the gruesome death of an imaginary baby.
Il Colore Ritrovato
An impresario who discovered the greatest opera singer in the world has just come across a young street performer who he believes could be even better. After seeing how fame and fortune has affected his first discovery, he has doubts about immediately signing her up.
A Horse and Two Goats
Short Story by R. K. Narayan. A humorous account of the trials and tribulations of an old man’s life in a remote Indian village, and how miscommunication with a rich American who wants to buy the village’s guardian statue of a horse pays off handsomely.

The Faithful Wife
Short Story by Morley Callaghan. A young man is invited to visit the home of a woman he has never spoken to. When he gets there, she encourages him to “make out”. The woman is married, and this is her way of fulfilling a basic need without being unfaithful.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Short Story by Ambrose Bierce. Set during the American Civil War, Union troops are about to hang a man from a bridge he tried to destroy. As the man falls to his death, he feels the rope breaking, swims to shore and returns home. Or does he?
Blue
Grade 7-8 Story by Francesca Lia Block. A girl abandoned by her mother finds temporary comfort in stories about how much her mother loved her told by an imaginary creature living in her closet. A class assignment to “write about someone we love” helps her face the loss.
A Father-To-Be
Short Story by Saul Bellow. A scientist notices the resemblance between his future wife and the “flat-looking dandy of respectability” sitting next to him on the subway. He begins to wonder what her children will look like, and is so disturbed by the thought he decides to end the relationship..

Sweet Potato Pie
Short Story by Eugenia Collier. A family worked together to survive poverty. The older children cared for the young, and left school as soon as possible. The family could afford for only one child (now a professor) to attend college, but life is equally sweet for his cab-driving older brother.
MS. Found in a Bottle
Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe. An MS. (manuscript) found in a bottle tossed into the ocean by a dying man relates how, after a series of misadventures at sea, he found himself on a huge ghost galleon speeding under full sail towards the South pole.
Zero Hour
Short Story by Ray Bradbury. A feisty seven-year-old girl is leading her friends in a construction game following instructions she receives from an imaginary friend. Her mother later learns that groups of similar-aged children across America are doing the same thing. The name of the game is “Invasion”.