In "The Most Dangerous Game", Zaroff presses a button and lights flash far out at sea, marking a channel where there is none over rocks that crush ships. A dozen sailors from a wrecked bark sit in his cellar. What does this establish?

"The Cask of Amontillado" ends with Montresor, who has just sealed a living man behind eleven tiers of stone, saying "In pace requiescat!" - may he rest in peace. What is at work in that closing line?

In "The Scarlet Ibis", Brother takes Doodle up to the barn loft, shows him the mahogany coffin built for him as a baby, and makes him touch it by threatening to leave him there alone. What does the moment establish?

At the ministry ball Mathilde is the prettiest woman there and the minister himself notices her. Then she hurries out so the women in costly furs will not see her in the modest wraps of common life. What does that pairing show?

In "The Monkey's Paw", Mr. White wishes for two hundred pounds. Next day a man from Maw and Meggins arrives to say Herbert was caught in the machinery, and to hand the family two hundred pounds in compensation. Name the irony.

In "The Veldt", George and Lydia keep hearing screams from the nursery veldt that sound strangely familiar to them both. What do those screams turn out to be?

Pinned under the beech, Georg swears they will fight the quarrel out to the death "with no cursed interlopers to come between us". The story's last word is "Wolves." What is Saki doing with that echo?

"The Gift of the Magi" pauses early to name the two possessions the Youngs take a mighty pride in: Jim's gold watch and Della's hair, treasures that would make Solomon and the Queen of Sheba envious. What does naming them set up?

In "Marigolds", Miss Lottie's ramshackle house stands in a dusty Depression-era shantytown, and in front of it she keeps a blazing bed of marigolds. What is the element at work in that flower bed?

Nadine Gordimer's "Once Upon a Time" opens with a writer refusing to write a children's story; then, awake at night and frightened by a noise, she tells herself a bedtime story that becomes the rest of the text. Name the structure.

Montresor opens by setting two conditions for revenge: he must punish with impunity, and the victim must know who is punishing him. How does the ending of "The Cask of Amontillado" meet them?

Zaroff calls the cellar where he holds shipwrecked sailors his training school, calls the men in it his pupils, and says he treats his visitors with every consideration. What is at work in that language?

Bradbury names the two children in "The Veldt" Peter and Wendy, the names of the children in J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan. What is that device called?

Mathilde passes over bracelets, a pearl necklace and a Venetian gold cross, and picks the superb diamond necklace out of the black satin box. The diamonds turn out to be paste. What is the necklace working as?

Lizabeth, fourteen, lies awake and hears her father break down because he cannot find work and her mother is keeping the family. She runs out and tears up every one of Miss Lottie's marigolds. What does that turn depend on?

Warmed by his wine flask, Ulrich looks across at Georg fighting down his groans and offers him a drink; Georg refuses it. Ulrich then offers to have him helped first, and to end the feud. What does the reconciliation turn on?

Sergeant-Major Morris tells the Whites the paw has caused enough mischief, throws it on the fire himself, and tells Mr. White to pitch it back in like a sensible man. Why does he try to destroy it?

Della turns every store inside out and pays twenty-one dollars for a plain platinum fob chain rather than an ornamented one. Why does she pick that chain for Jim?

The Hadleys' Happylife Home ties their shoes, bathes them, cooks for them and rocks them to sleep. What does that setting do to the family in "The Veldt"?

As they go down into the vaults Montresor twice hands Fortunato wine, first the Medoc and then a flagon of De Grave, and drinks to his long life. Why does he keep his victim drinking?

The little boy, who has just been read Sleeping Beauty, plays at being the prince hacking through the thorns and climbs into the razor coil on top of the wall. What does that ending do to the family's fear?

In "The Scarlet Ibis" the color red keeps returning: the bleeding tree the bird lights in, the dead ibis in the yard, and the last sight of Doodle. What is that repetition doing?

Saki pins Ulrich and Georg side by side under the fallen beech and leaves them there, unable to move, for most of "The Interlopers". What does that structural choice accomplish?

After the replacement is bought, the Loisels dismiss their servant and move to a garret under the roof, where Mathilde carries the water up the stairs and haggles sou by sou for ten years. What does that change of setting accomplish?

Jacobs breaks "The Monkey's Paw" into three numbered parts. What does that division do?

"Marigolds" is told by a grown Lizabeth looking back at the summer she was fourteen. What does telling it that way accomplish?

Connell sets the whole hunt on a private island Zaroff owns, off the shipping lanes, with his own hounds, his own giant servant and his own false channel. What does that setting accomplish?

The Youngs' flat has a letter-box no letter will go into, an electric button no mortal finger can coax a ring from, and a pier glass so narrow that only a slim person can see herself in it. What do these details accomplish?

Gordimer writes the inner story of "Once Upon a Time" in fairy-tale language - once upon a time, living happily ever after - about a suburb buying burglar bars, walls and razor wire. What does that language do?

George shuts the nursery down and tells the family they are leaving the house. Peter and Wendy beg for one more minute in the nursery, and their parents give in. Why do the children want that minute?

Doodle learns to walk in Old Woman Swamp, but the brothers tell nobody and spend weeks promising a spectacular surprise, saving it for October eighth, Doodle's sixth birthday. Why does Brother hold it back?

Ten years on, Madame Loisel sees Madame Forestier in the Champs Elysees and decides to go up to her and tell her everything. Why can she tell her now?

After the leap from the cliff, Zaroff eats an exceedingly good dinner, reads Marcus Aurelius, and goes up to bed with only two slight annoyances. Why is he so untroubled?

Which statement about "The Cask of Amontillado" is NOT true?

Which statement about "The Scarlet Ibis" is NOT true?

Which statement about "The Interlopers" is NOT true?

Which statement about "Marigolds" is NOT true?

Which statement about "Once Upon a Time" is NOT true?

Mrs. White has the bolt drawn back and the knocking is loud when Mr. White finds the paw on the floor and breathes his third wish. She opens the door on a quiet, deserted road. What does the ending turn on?

"The Gift of the Magi" takes its title from the wise men who brought gifts to the child in the manger, and its closing paragraph returns to them. What is that device called?