There Will Come Soft Rains

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Reading Check

1. Where does the story take place?

2. What animal enters the house?

3. In the house, there are paintings by which artists?

4. The house recites a poem by which poet?

5.  What destroys the house?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What sort of work does the automated house do for the family?

2. How does Bradbury describe the ruined city?

3. What happened to the family that lived in the house?

4. What is the only trace left of the family?

Paired Resource

“Atomic Alert”

• This short film from 1951 was shown in schools to prepare students for the possibility of a nuclear attack.
• How does this film provide context for Bradbury’s story? How does it illuminate the time in which the author wrote “There Will Come Soft Rains?”

“There Will Come Soft Rains” by Sara Teasdale

• This poem, recited by the house in the story, describes nature’s reaction to humanity’s disappearance. Teasdale’s poem gave Bradbury’s story its title.
• How does the poem illustrate nature’s view of humanity? How does Bradbury use the same idea in his story? Consider the theme of Death and the Passage of Time.