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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 far away would the orange need to be, in the narrator's illustration, to represent how far away Vonnadoria would be?
(a) In Canada.
(b) In New Zealand.
(c) In Mercury’s orbit.
(d) In Italy.

2. Who recognizes the narrator first, when he returns to Cambridge?
(a) Gulliver.
(b) Isobel.
(c) Newton.
(d) Winston Churchill.

3. Why does the replacement say humans need to be limited in their technology?
(a) If they learn how to communicate, they will sow divisions in Vonnadorian society.
(b) If they understand the power of mathematics, they will use it to enrich themselves.
(c) If they ever get off the planet, they will not be friendly.
(d) If they see the splendor of mathematics, they will lose their minds.

4. What Talking Heads song does the narrator listen to over and over?
(a) Burning down the house.
(b) This must be the place.
(c) Wild, wild life.
(d) Once in a lifetime.

5. How does Ari characterize the duration of human history?
(a) The blink of an eye.
(b) The flush of a toilet.
(c) The moment of a sneeze.
(d) The length of a fart.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator say happens when everything becomes alien?

2. What does a person need to stay true, or in order for their love to be true, according to the narrator?

3. What does the narrator say he found terrifying about making love with Maggie?

4. What is the top secret thing Ari mentions to the narrator?

5. What does the narrator offer the hosts as a justification for not killing Isobel and Gulliver?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when the narrator tells Isobel about having sex with Maggie?

2. What is the narrator about to tell Isobel when he sees Zӧe being harassed on the street?

3. How does the narrator defuse the humor and anxiety in his classroom, when he returns to teaching for the first time after being arrested for being naked?

4. How does Maggie characterize what it means to be human?

5. What is the secret Ari has been keeping for Andrew Martin?

6. Why does the narrator say he did not try to patch things up with Isobel?

7. How does the narrator characterize human sex?

8. How does the narrator get Gulliver’s buy-in for his authority and power?

9. How does the narrator find out about the presence of the replacement?

10. What do the narrator’s hosts say when he tells them that he needs more time?

(see the answer keys)

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