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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Ishmael characterize man’s progress, once he discovered agriculture?
(a) Fits and starts
(b) Plodding
(c) Slow, till he learned how to navigate the ocean
(d) Meteoric

2. How does Ishmael characterize the notion that agriculture started in the Fertile Crescent?
(a) He says that it has not been proved yet
(b) He says that it is an old hat
(c) He says that it is undisputed
(d) He says that it is subject to much debate

3. What does the narrator say, in Chapter 5, man did once he made the development that distinguished him from his ancestors?
(a) Set about mastering the world
(b) Set about learning from the animals
(c) Set about discovering himself
(d) Set about telling stories about the exile from the Garden

4. In Chapter 5, how does the narrator characterize the world without man?
(a) Post-apocalyptic dreamscape
(b) Raw material
(c) Bloody jungle
(d) Paradise

5. How does Ishmael say the narrator learned the story of ‘how things came to be this way’?
(a) All at once in church
(b) In his earliest experience with his family
(c) A little at a time
(d) Systematically, in school

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the literary term that describes the narrator’s directly addressing the reader?

2. What does Ishmael say he wants, in Chapter 4, when the narrator finally realizes the truth of what Ishmael has been talking about?

3. What does Ishmael say is the purpose of Mother Culture’s story?

4. When does the narrator recognize Ishmael in Chapter 1?

5. What end does Ishmael say he foresees for the Takers’ culture?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Ishmael say Hitler captivated the German people?

2. Describe the narrator’s first encounter with Ishmael.

3. How do Ishmael and the narrator see the Takers as similar to early aeronauts?

4. How does the narrator characterize the problems with the narrator’s culture?

5. What does Ishmael say will be the result, once the narrator learns to hear Mother Culture’s voice?

6. Why does Walter Sokolow adopt Ishmael?

7. What was the consequence of agriculture in the narrator’s account?

8. How would you characterize Ishmael’s tone with the narrator in general, as they talk regularly?

9. What does the narrator’s culture’s reliance on prophets indicate to Ishmael?

10. What does Ishmael say is his greatest fantasy?

(see the answer keys)

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