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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. What is the name of the single book the unnamed narrator brings along with him for his residency in Texas?
(a) Specimen Days.
(b) Evolution Days.
(c) Creosote Days.
(d) Natural Days.

2. How many years before narrative present did Noor's father die of a heart attack?
(a) 3.
(b) 5.
(c) 19.
(d) 12.

3. When the unnamed narrator and the distinguished female author hit it off at the literary dinner, what dessert do they share?
(a) Tiramisu.
(b) Peach pie.
(c) Chocolate crickets.
(d) A chocolate tart.

4. The unnamed narrator states that "the most riveting and disturbing and particular passages" of his one book "are about" (166) which topic?
(a) The French-Indian War.
(b) World War I.
(c) The Civil War.
(d) The Spanish-American War.

5. To what type of restaurant did Noor's mother take her to tell her the identity of her biological father?
(a) Italian.
(b) French.
(c) Mexican.
(d) Chinese.

Short Answer Questions

1. To what hospital does the unnamed narrator go at the beginning of Part Three?

2. For what purpose does the unnamed narrator choose the particular book he brings along on the residency?

3. To what location is the unnamed narrator referring when he has the distinguished female author in hysterical laughter over the "masturbatorium" (125)?

4. Alex cautions the unnamed narrator in Part Three not to write about what kinds of issues?

5. On what floor of the hospital is the fertility office, where the unnamed narrator is scheduled to give a semen sample?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Michael and how does the unnamed narrator meet him?

2. The unnamed narrator finds himself working diligently in Texas, but "on the wrong thing" (170). What other piece does he work on instead?

3. What object does the unnamed narrator keep patting inside his pocket as he makes his way to the seventh floor of New-York Presbyterian Hospital?

4. How does the unnamed narrator meet Noor?

5. How does the theme of fatherhood enter the narrative in Part Four?

6. In what way does the unnamed narrator set up a dichotomy between the art of the "readymade" (133) and the totaled art in Alena's institute?

7. On what adventure does the unnamed narrator take eight-year-old Roberto in Part Three?

8. What is "totaled art" (130) and how had Alena acquired some of it prior to the novel's opening?

9. What is the only low point in the adventure Roberto and the unnamed narrator go on together in Part Three?

10. For what reason does the unnamed narrator travel to Texas in Part Four?

(see the answer keys)

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