The Lady or the Tiger, Revisited

I definitely read The Lady, or the Tiger? When I was in ninth grade, we had this book of short stories and occasionally we would have to read one of the stories and answer questions. That was one of them. I want to complain about them, but my OFFICIAL LAURA'S SHADY MEMORY™ won't let me do a good job. Here I go!

The Lady, or the Tiger?
      I feel like it was just that there was a guy, and he had to choose between two doors. Behind one was a lady who wanted to have sex with him, and behind the other was a tiger who wanted to kill him. The story stopped before he chose doors, leaving you to mull dissatisfiedly over the possibilities. Basically one was good and the other bad. This seems too simplistic, if you ask me. As long as you know which one you're going for, here's a tip: just go for the door that isn't growling. I feel like it should have been more complicated. Like that if he had sex with the lady he would get genital herpes. So he was screwed either way. Still, he was only literally screwed one way; obviously, the lady is still the way to go. How about if before the tiger killed him he could have sex with the tiger, and it was guaranteed to be the best sex he ever had?

Review Questions:
1. Would you rather get have mediocre sex and get genital herpes or have the best sex you ever had with a tiger and then get mauled to death? Why or why not?
2. Is genital herpes curable?
3. Which door did the guy end up choosing? If you get it wrong, you fail.
4. Are you a lady, or a tiger?

The Most Dangerous Game
      I think this elf story speaks for itself.

Review Questions:
1. What is the most dangerous game of all? (Hint: Hungry Hungry _____!)
2. What is the danger ratio of an elf? (You may use a calculator.)
3. What is more dangerous: a lady with genital herpes, a tiger, a bear, a snake, or snakes?

The Ransom of Red Chief
      The boy was so obnoxious that the kidnappers paid for him to be returned safely! Once they did a play version of this, and my boyfriend played The Dad.

Review Questions:
1. Why didn't they just kill the kid?
2. O. Henry is a jackass. Explain.

The Lie
      It was about a kid who told a lie, and it was eating away at him, or something. He had these obnoxious parents and they were taking him for a drive to a boarding school where he was going. The lie might have been telling his parents he got in to the school, when really he didn't. And they were getting closer and closer to the school when the truth would inevitably be revealed by the principal and everything being all "You're not a student, what the hell are you doing here," and getting further and further from a time when he could have told the truth and gotten out of the whole situation. Or maybe that's a story I just made up.

Review Questions:
1. What was the lie he told? (I don't remember.)
2. There is an old saying, "Let sleeping dogs lie." How has this story given this statement new meaning for you personally?
3. Are the kid's parents on crack? How about crank?

The Necklace

      This plot (girl borrows diamond necklace from rich woman without asking, loses necklace, works her whole life to replace necklace, replaces necklace, rich woman loses necklace, says "it's okay, the necklace was was just made of paste") was cheapened considerably by my having seen about a million kids' shows with the same plot (Adventures in Wonderland, anyone?).

Review Questions:
1. What European empire does the necklace represent?
2. Challenge: make a necklace that looks like diamond out of paste. You may also use scissors and construction paper.
3. Comment on the futility of life, not with relation to this story.

The Grey Cat
      I never read this story.

Review Questions:
1. Was it about a grey cat?