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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Genghis Cohen informs Oedipa that a mysterious new bidder requested to view the stamps in lot 49, but the request was denied for what reason?
(a) He refused to give his credit card number.
(b) He was in prison.
(c) The agent was on the list of prohibited bidders.
(d) The agent refused to give the bidder's name.

2. How does Oedipa end up at the desk of Stanley Koteks?
(a) They are former lovers.
(b) She gets lost on a tour of Yoyodyne.
(c) She follows the WASTE symbols.
(d) She is directed there by voices in her head.

3. Genghis Cohen claims that the stamp, which depicts a Pony Express rider galloping out of a western fort into a black feather, is what?
(a) Extinct.
(b) Counterfeit.
(c) Priceless.
(d) Rare.

4. What happens when Oedipa returns to her hotel in Berkeley?
(a) A young man waltzes her around the ballroom.
(b) She sees the ghost of Inverarity.
(c) She finds Mucho waiting in her room.
(d) She sleeps wtih John Nefastis.

5. The Paranoids sing a song recounting how men like __________ seduce younger women?
(a) Mucho.
(b) Miles.
(c) Humbert Humbert.
(d) Metzger.

6. Genghis Cohen told Oedipa, during their discussion about the meanings behind the stamps, that he had never heard of an _______ year tradition of postal fraud.
(a) 600.
(b) 900.
(c) 800.
(d) 100.

7. Where does Genghis Cohen want to send several of the stamps he is reviewing for Oedipa?
(a) San Francisco.
(b) An Expert Committee.
(c) A Stamp Expo.
(d) University of California.

8. Genghis Cohen shows Oedipa an old German stamp with Thurn and Taxis printed on it which has a special symbol in each corner. He suggests that the extra mark on the symbol is a ______.
(a) Moat.
(b) Mute.
(c) Flute.
(d) Foul.

9. After finding a copy of Plays of Ford, Webster, Tourneur and Wharfinger, Oedipa discovers a note that says "trystero" may be derived from the Italian word "triste." What does this word mean?
(a) Depraved.
(b) Mysterious.
(c) Deadly.
(d) Third.

10. What scientific rule does the Nefastis Machine violate?
(a) First Law of Thermodynamics.
(b) Second Law of Thermodynamics.
(c) The WASTE Law.
(d) The Law of Triads.

11. Bortz hands Oedipa an ancient book about the _________ travels of Dr. Diocletian Blobb.
(a) Italian.
(b) American.
(c) English.
(d) Roman.

12. Oedipa returns to Echo Courts to find the Paranoids in shock because _________ ran off with one of their girlfriends.
(a) Humbert Humbert.
(b) Metzger.
(c) Miles.
(d) Mucho.

13. Oedipa pieces together an account of how the Tristero organization began in what year?
(a) 1757.
(b) 1567.
(c) 1577.
(d) 1967.

14. After Oedipa follows the wino with the bag of letters, where does she find the can with the WASTE symbol on the side?
(a) On a bus.
(b) At her hotel.
(c) Under the freeway
(d) Behind Nefastis' apartment.

15. Oedipa, accompanied by Bortz and the graduate students, attends the funeral and tries to reach out to some remaining trace of life in the grave in a similar fashion to what?
(a) A seance.
(b) Communicating with sensitives.
(c) A hallucination.
(d) Communicating with Maxwell's Demon.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who answers the phone when Oedipa tries to call Driblette from her motel room in Chapter 6?

2. Bortz suggests to Oedipa that Tristero might have caused ______ simply in order to issue the Proclamation of the 9th Frimaire, An III, ending the sanctioned postal monopoly.

3. Metzger tells Mike Fallopian he is so right-wing that he's left-wing, and possibly a Marxist, since he is invoking the _______theory.

4. What is the purpose of the group as explained by the tourist wearing the lapel pin?

5. Oedipa reads about Blobb's account of an attack near the Lake of Piety, which left all dead except Blobb and his servant. Who attacked them?

(see the answer keys)

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