43 pages • 1 hour read
Ray BradburyA Sound Of Thunder
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1952A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Quiz
Reading Check, Multiple Choice & Short Answer Quizzes
Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.
Reading Check
1. What kind of Safari does Time Safari Inc. arrange for their customers?
2. What is the name of the man guiding the Safari?
3. Rather than taking the dinosaur home as a “trophy,” what option do the hunters have to commemorate the hunt?
4. Besides mud, what does Eckels discover on his boot?
Multiple Choice
1. Who is elected President of the United States at the beginning of the story?
A) Deutscher
B) Keith
C) Lesperance
D) Travis
2. How is Deutscher described at the beginning of the story?
A) as a weakling
B) as an expert hunter
C) as a businessman
D) as a dictator
3. What might happen if someone steps off the path laid out by Time Safari Inc.?
A) They could change the course of history.
B) They might slip and fall.
C) They could get lost.
D) They might be unable to get back on the path.
4. Why can’t the men take back a portion of the dinosaur’s body as a trophy?
A) Time Safari doesn’t want the public to know they are shooting dinosaurs.
B) It would make too much of a mess in the time machine.
C) It needs to decompose naturally to avoid affecting the future.
D) They would waste too much time gathering a trophy from the dinosaur.
5. What mistake does Eckels make while the men are hunting?
A) He steps off the path.
B) He shoots the wrong animal.
C) He breaks the time machine.
D) He scares the dinosaur off.
6. What does Travis force Eckels to do as punishment for Eckels’s mistake?
A) carry everyone’s weapons
B) retrieve the bullets from the dinosaur’s body
C) mend the path
D) stay in the past
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Describe the path created by Time Safari Inc., and explain its purpose.
2. Why are the hunters allowed to shoot the dinosaur that has been marked with red paint?
3. How does Eckels react when he first sees the dinosaur?
4. At the end of the story, how is the present day different from before?
Quizzes – Answer Key
Reading Check
1. hunting trips in the past
2. Mr. Travis
3. They can take a photo with it.
4. a butterfly
Multiple Choice
1. B
2. D
3. A
4. C
5. A
6. B
Short-Answer Response
1. The path is made of metal and floats 6 inches above the ground so that it doesn’t touch anything—not even a blade of grass. The purpose of the path is to protect nature from being disrupted by the Safari participants, ensuring that the present will not be affected by their presence in the past.
2. It was determined that this particular dinosaur would be crushed by a falling tree and die, so returning to that moment and shooting it just before the tree falls will not disrupt the present.
3. He panics in fear. He determines that the dinosaur cannot be killed and decides he was a fool to come.
4. Deutscher has been elected president instead of Keith, colors seem different, the air has a chemical smell, and words are spelled differently.
Related Titles
By Ray Bradbury
