Name:       Date:      

“The Metamorphosis”
Franz Kafka

FIRST READ: Comprehension

Identify the choice that best answers the question.

      1. In “The Metamorphosis,” how does Gregor first react when he discovers that
he has become an insect?
a. He is shocked and terrified and calls on his family for help.
b. He refuses to leave his room or to talk to anyone about his problem.
c. He determines to continue with his normal work and family relationships.
d. He is relieved that he will no longer have to work as a traveling salesman.

      2. In “The Metamorphosis,” what is the most important reason in Gregor’s mind
for holding onto his job as a traveling salesman?
a. He enjoys his job and is well liked and respected at work.
b. He feels responsible for the financial support of his family.
c. He believes that he is just imagining that he is an insect.
d. He wants to prove that he can become a human being again.

     3. Which of the following sentences most accurately describes Grete’s attitude
toward her brother, Gregor, in “The Metamorphosis”?
a. She is sympathetic and caring at first, but as her life gets more difficult,
she blames him for the family’s problems.
b. She cares for him at first just to please her mother and father, but her
dislike for him grows each day.
c. She feels genuine affection for him and never gives up on him, regardless
of his bad behavior.
d. She is horrified by the change in him and develops a hatred for him
because of his ugliness.

      4. How do the family members in “The Metamorphosis” justify their decision to
get rid of the insect?
a. They believe that if they do so, Gregor will return.
b. They convince themselves that the insect is not Gregor.
c. They are afraid that the insect will try to kill them.
d. They can no longer afford to feed the insect.

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 GRADE 10 • UNIT 2 • SELECTION TEST

“THE METAMORPHOSIS” BY FRANZ KAFKA

Name:       Date:      

FIRST READ: Concept Vocabulary

Identify the choice that best answers the question.

      5. Which of the following people would be most likely to act listlessly? Base your
answer on the meaning of listlessly.
a. people who are reporting a shocking event
b. people who are committing a serious crime
c. people who are unsure of their sense of balance
d. people who are overworked and exhausted

      6. Which of the following situations could best be used to illustrate the meaning
of amelioration? Base your answer on the meaning of amelioration.
a. a blow to the head of a falling person
b. a look in the mirror to an angry person
c. a cold drink of water to a thirsty person
d. a change of scenery to a confused person

      7. What is the most likely meaning of asphyxiation in the following sentence?
When Donald choked on a piece of apple, he almost died of asphyxiation.

a. a clot in a blood vessel

b. an inability to breathe
c. food poisoning
d. heart disease

CLOSE READ: Analyze the Text

Identify the choice that best answers the question.

      8. In the opening scene of “The Metamorphosis,” what do Gregor’s thoughts and
long speeches reveal most clearly about his personality?
a. He is self-reliant and resents others telling him what to do.
b. He is careful and methodical about everything he does.
c. He is indecisive and tends to overthink his actions.
d. He is proud of his job and very successful at it.

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 GRADE 10 • UNIT 2 • SELECTION TEST

“THE METAMORPHOSIS” BY FRANZ KAFKA

Name:       Date:      

9. The following question has two parts. Answer Part A first, and then Part B.

      Part A In “The Metamorphosis,” as his life as an insect continues, Gregor

begins to lose interest in living. Which of these events most significantly leads
to Gregor’s deterioration?
a. Gregor discovers that other people cannot understand his speech.
b. His angry father treats him like a menace and throws apples at him.
c. His parents treat the lodgers with more concern than they have for
Gregor.
d. Grete no longer shows compassion for him and treats him with
indifference.

      Part B Which quotation from “The Metamorphosis” best supports the answer to
Part A?
a. All right, people did not understand his words any more, although they
seemed clear enough to him… But at least people now thought that things
were not all right with him and were prepared to help him.
b. Gregor’s serious wound … (since no one ventured to remove the apple),
seemed by itself to have reminded the father that … Gregor was a
member of the family, something one should not treat as an enemy.
c. He was filled with sheer anger over the wretched care he was getting.…
Without thinking any more about how one might be able to give Gregor
special pleasure, the sister now kicked some food or other very quickly
into his room.
d. Because the lodgers sometimes also took their evening meal at home in
the common living room, the door to the living room stayed shut on many
evenings. But Gregor had no trouble at all going without the open door.

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 GRADE 10 • UNIT 2 • SELECTION TEST

“THE METAMORPHOSIS” BY FRANZ KAFKA

Name:       Date:      

10. The following question has two parts. Answer Part A first, and then Part B.

      Part A In “The Metamorphosis,” Gregor’s parents and sister eventually are
able to make their own living without Gregor’s earnings. What do their efforts
reveal about them?
a. They are relieved at the thought that they no longer have to be in debt to
Gregor.
b. They have no idea about what to do with their lives without Gregor to
support and guide them.
c. They become determined and self-reliant instead of allowing a difficult
situation to defeat them.
d. They are too snobbish to adjust to poverty, so they seek someone to
support them as Gregor once did.

      Part B Which quotation from the text best supports the answer to Part A?
a. But now he [the father] was standing up really straight, dressed in a tight
fitting blue uniform with gold buttons, … like the one servants wear in a
banking company … Bent far over, the mother sewed fine undergarments
for a fashion shop. The sister, who had taken on a job as a salesgirl, in the
evening studied stenography and French, so as perhaps later to obtain a
better position.
b. … the main thing holding the family back from a change in living quarters
was far more their complete hopelessness and the idea that they had been
struck by a misfortune like no one else in their entire circle of relatives and
acquaintances.
c. What the world demands of poor people they now carried out to an
extreme degree. The father brought breakfast to the petty officials at the
bank, the mother sacrificed herself for the undergarments of strangers, the
sister behind her desk was at the beck and call of customers, but the
family’s energies did not extend any further.
d. “We must try to get rid of it,” the sister now said decisively to the father,
for the mother … wasn’t listening to anything. “It is killing you both. I see
it coming. When people work as hard as we all do, they cannot also
tolerate this endless torment at home. I just can’t go on any more.”

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 GRADE 10 • UNIT 2 • SELECTION TEST

“THE METAMORPHOSIS” BY FRANZ KAFKA

Name:       Date:      

     11. Read the quotation from “The Metamorphosis.” Then, answer the question that
follows.
He [Gregor] remembered his family with deep feeling and love. In this business, his
own thought that he had to disappear was, if possible, even more decisive than his
sister’s.

What does this quotation suggest about Gregor’s state of mind just before his
death? Choose two options.
a. He struggles to stay alive despite his pain and suffering.
b. He dies believing he will once again become human.
c. He wishes to sacrifice himself for his family’s sake.
d. He regains his emotional attachment to his family.
e. He dies feeling angry, abandoned, and bitter.
f. He blames his family for neglecting him.

CLOSE READ: Analyze Craft and Structure

Identify the choice that best answers the question.

     12. Which of the following is the most likely reason that Kafka in “The
Metamorphosis” has Gregor turn into an insect rather than some other animal?
a. to reveal Gregor’s evil nature
b. to show that Gregor has low self-esteem
c. to make Gregor repulsive to those around him
d. to frighten readers into a feeling of hatred for Gregor

     13. How does Kafka create the atmosphere of a nightmare in “The

Metamorphosis”? Choose three options.
a. The author makes Gregor unable to communicate with people.
b. The author shows Gregor’s panic at realizing that he is now an insect.
c. The author makes Gregor’s efforts to go to work as an insect seem funny.
d. The author shows Gregor thinking that he deserves to be changed into an
insect.
e. The author makes Gregor seem stupid for not understanding that he is no
longer a person.
f. The author puts the insect Gregor in dangers that he does not know how
to handle.
g. The author makes the story more frightening by providing a reason for
Gregor’s transformation.
h. The author has Gregor remain human in his feelings even though his
body is now that of an insect.

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 GRADE 10 • UNIT 2 • SELECTION TEST

“THE METAMORPHOSIS” BY FRANZ KAFKA

Name:       Date:      

     14. Which of the following statements shows most clearly that “The
Metamorphosis” is an example of absurdist literature?
a. Gregor mostly seems to enjoy his transformation.
b. The other characters do not act like ordinary human beings.
c. The transformation of Gregor into a giant insect is fully explained.
d. Gregor’s transformation leads to his complete alienation from other
people.

15. The following question has two parts. Answer Part A first, and then Part B.

      Part A Which of these events is the clearest example of absurdist humor in “The

Metamorphosis”?
a. Gregor, now an insect, struggles to leave his room and thinks he can do his
traveling salesman job.
b. The lodgers in the apartment threaten not to pay rent when they discover
the insect Gregor.
c. The sister pretends to mourn Gregor even though she has convinced her
parents to kill him.
d. The cleaning woman discovers Gregor’s body and does not believe that he
is dead.

      Part B Which quotation from the text best supports the answer to Part A?
a. [Gregor] wanted to open the door; he really wanted to let himself be seen
by and to speak with the manager. He was keen to witness what the others
now asking after him would say at the sight of him. If they were startled,
then Gregor had no more responsibility and could be calm. But if they
accepted everything quietly, then he would have no reason to get excited
and, if he got a move on, could really be at the station around eight
o’clock.
b. “I hereby declare,” the middle lodger said, raising his hand and casting his
glance both on the mother and the sister, “that considering the disgraceful
conditions prevailing in this apartment and family,” with this he spat
decisively on the floor, “I immediately cancel my room. I will, of course,
pay nothing at all for the days which I have lived here; …”
c. Early in the morning the cleaning woman came … she became irritated
and poked Gregor a little, and only when she had shoved him from his
place without any resistance did she become attentive … She pulled open
the door of the bedroom and yelled in a loud voice into the darkness,
“Come and look. It’s kicked the bucket. It’s lying there, totally snuffed!”
d. Grete, who did not take her eyes off the corpse, said, “Look how thin he
was. He had eaten nothing for such a long time. The meals which came in
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 GRADE 10 • UNIT 2 • SELECTION TEST

“THE METAMORPHOSIS” BY FRANZ KAFKA

here came out again exactly the same.”

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 GRADE 10 • UNIT 2 • SELECTION TEST

“THE METAMORPHOSIS” BY FRANZ KAFKA

Name:       Date:      

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: Word Study

Identify the choice that best answers the question.

     16. Think about the word travail as you read this quotation from “The
Metamorphosis.” Then, answer the question that follows.
He [the father] would settle himself even more deeply in his armchair. Only when
the two women grabbed him under the armpits would he throw his eyes open, look
back and forth at the mother and sister, and habitually say, “This is a life. This is the
peace and quiet of my old age.” And propped up by both women, he would heave
himself up, elaborately, as if for him it was the greatest travail.

Which sentence best explains the connotation of travail?

a. Travail suggests work that takes great effort or is burdensome.
b. Travail suggests an action that inspires great disgust or loathing.
c. Travail suggests a loss of dignity or honor in the eyes of others.
d. Travail suggests labor that will ultimately reap a great reward.

     17. Read this quotation from “The Metamorphosis.” Then, answer the question that

follows.
He [Gregor] immediately dipped his head almost up to and over his eyes down into
the milk. But he soon drew it back again in disappointment, not just because it was
difficult for him to eat … but also because the milk, which otherwise was his favorite
drink and which his sister had certainly placed there for that reason, did not appeal
to him at all. He turned away from the bowl almost with aversion and crept back into
the middle of the room.

Which synonym most closely matches both the denotation and connotation of
aversion in the quotation?
a. suspense
b. loathing
c. hostility
d. indifference

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 GRADE 10 • UNIT 2 • SELECTION TEST

“THE METAMORPHOSIS” BY FRANZ KAFKA

Name:       Date:      

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: Conventions

Identify the choice that best answers the question.

     18. Which group of underlined words in the following sentences is a verb phrase
without any interrupting words?
a. “The Metamorphosis” was originally written in German.
b. Since that time, it has been translated into dozens of languages.
c. Translators have often faced a challenge in translating the German word
for insect.
d. The German word for insect has alternately been translated as cockroach,
beetle, or dung beetle.

     19. In which sentence are the underlined words auxiliary verbs?

a. If Kafka had not died at the age of forty, he might have produced more
masterpieces like “The Metamorphosis.”
b. Kafka, like many writers, wrote his books in the evenings and other spare
time.
c. He studied to become a lawyer and worked days at an insurance
company.
d. Although Kafka was not a German citizen, he wrote in German.

     20. Read the sample sentence. Then, answer the question that follows.
Unlike his character Gregor, Kafka actually did well at one insurance company.

Which of the following revisions of the sample sentence includes a verb phrase
with an auxiliary verb or verbs?
a. Kafka actually did well at one insurance company, unlike his character
Gregor.
b. Kafka, unlike his character Gregor, actually did well at one insurance
company.
c. Kafka was not like his character Gregor, because Kafka actually did well
at one insurance company.
d. Kafka must have been unlike his character Gregor, because Kafka
actually did well at one insurance company.

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