The Talking Doll

 

There was an old couple who had hired a new maid to help around their house. The wife had a huge doll collection, and the maid was expected to dust them once a week. So once a week the maid walked into the room where the dolls were stored and looked at them in disgust. She hated dolls. While she was dusting, she came across a particularly strange doll. It was a talking doll and it had a cord in the back. The maid was interested and pulled the cord. The doll said, “Hello.” The maid did it again. “I love my momma”, said the doll. The maid put the doll back and continued cleaning.

A few weeks later, while dusting off the dolls, the maid accidentally knocked a doll over. It shattered as soon as it hit the ground. The old woman heard the sound and went to investigate. When she walked into the room and saw her shattered doll, a very sad look came across her face. The maid saw this quickly and said, “I’m really sorry. I won’t do it again.” The old woman looked down at her sad, broken doll and told the maid that she could only keep her job if she promised to be extra careful around the dolls. The maid agreed.

The next day, the old couple left the maid alone while they went out to run some errands. The maid was in such a bad mood that she neglected to do her job. While she was sitting in the kitchen enjoying some of the couple’s fancy chocolate, the maid thought of a vicious idea. She slowly made her way into the room where the dolls were kept. She thought for a moment about how sad the old woman was about her broken doll. The maid picked up a doll and said, “She must really love these dolls,” and threw the doll on the floor. It shattered and the maid smiled.

She loved the feeling of breaking dolls. Something about the shattering sound pleased her. She threw more and more dolls to the floor. She was still in her doll-killing rage when the old couple came through the door. The old woman ran to her broken dolls. She looked up at the maid with a hostile expression and asked, “What are you doing?” The husband, seeing his wife so upset, immediately told the maid she was fired. The maid collected her things and left in an even worse mood before. This made her so angry that later that night she snuck back into the old couple’s home. Knowing they would be sound asleep, she crept into the kitchen, found the biggest knife she could, and made her way to the bedroom and stabbed the couple.

The next morning, the maid returned to the house and acted like an innocent bystander and told the police that she worked for the couple. The police believed this after she told them that the old couple were loving, nice, caring people and she had no idea why anyone would want to kill them.

At that point, she slowly walked into the house, saying she wished to make sure no one had hurt the old woman’s precious doll collection. When she got to the talking doll she picked it up and pulled the cord. “Hello”, it said. She pulled the cord again, and it said “Why did you kill my momma?” The maid looked horrified. “What did you just say?”

“Why did you kill momma?” asked the doll. The maid stared in shock. She kept pulling the cord. “Why did you kill my momma? She was a nice momma. I loved her very much. Why did you kill my momma?” The maid stared at the doll. She could not believe this was happening. “YOU KILLED MY MOMMA!” the doll screamed. The maid threw it to the ground and ran from the house.

The next morning the maid was found dead in her bed. In her arms was the talking doll. When investigators pulled the cord on the dolls back it just kept repeating, “She killed my momma. She killed my momma. She killed my momma…”

Choose the correct option according to the text. The indicated phrases are underlined in the text.

Question

1.- What does "it" refer to in the sentence "I'm really sorry. I won't do it again"? She won't... again.

Answers

a.  break the dolls

b.  walk into the room

c.  dust the dolls

d.  see the face

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Question

2.- What does "it" refer to in the sentence "The maid did it again"? The maid... again.

Answers

a.  walked into the room

b.  hated the dolls

c.  pulled the cord

d.  talked to the dolls

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Question

3.- What does "this" mean in the sentence "She could not believe this was happening"? The...

Answers

a.  maid threw the doll.

b.  made stared at the doll.

c.  doll said such things.

d.  doll looked horrified.

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Question

4.- What does "this" refer to in the sentence "This made her so angry"? The...

Answers

a.  feeling of breaking the dolls.

b.  husband seeing his wife upset.

c.  old couple coming in to the room.

d.  husband telling her she was fired.

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Question

5.- What does "this" refer to in the sentence "The police believed this"? That she...

Answers

a.  returned from the house.

b.  worked for the couple.

c.  acted like guilty.

d.  killed the old couple. 

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