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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. Mr. Thoth pulls a gold signet ring with the ________ symbol out of his knitting bag, which he says his grandfather cut from the finger of an Indian he had killed.
(a) WASTE.
(b) Nefastis.
(c) Trystero.
(d) Yoyodyne.

2. Who does Oedipa tell Stanley Koteks sent her to him as she comes upon him doodling at his desk at Yoyodyne?
(a) Kelly.
(b) John.
(c) Kirby.
(d) Thune.

3. What is on the cover of the book she purchases at Zapf's Used Books?
(a) The Nefastis Machine.
(b) A WASTE symbol.
(c) A Skull.
(d) A Tristero.

4. Who is Genghis Cohen?
(a) A philanthropist.
(b) A philosopher.
(c) A psychiatrist.
(d) A philatelist.

5. 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) Priceless.
(c) Rare.
(d) Counterfeit.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the name of the auctioneer who will be crying the lots the day Oedipa goes?

2. 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?

3. Dr. Hilarius protests that if he had been a real Nazi he would have become a Jungian. Instead, he chose to follow __________.

4. What does the Nefastis Machine do?

5. After Oedipa follows the wino with the bag of letters, where does she find the can with the WASTE symbol on the side?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is significant about the fact that the founder of Tristero, Hernando Joaquin de Tristero y Calavera, called himself The Disinherited?

2. How is the campus of Cal State different from when Oedipa was in college?

3. Why does Oedipa think it is possible that her search for Tristero may be a hoax created by Pierce Inverarity?

4. In addition to visiting John Nefastis, why does Oedipa need to go to Berkeley?

5. What is the paradox that Oedipa discovers concerning the Trystero couplet from Driblette's play?

6. At the end of Chapter 4, Genghis Cohen explains to Oedipa that the dandelion wine is clear now, but becomes cloudy in the spring when the dandelions begin to bloom, as if the dandelions in the wine remembered. What does Oedipa muse about this?

7. What is Pynchon ridiculing through all of Oedipa's in-depth research into the Trystero?

8. What is meant by Oedipa seeing Genghis Cohen, the philatelist, framed in a long succession of doorways?

9. The men Oedipa meets on her journey end up abandoning her. What were some of their fates and what did they represent?

10. According to Jesus Arrabal, what is the miracle of Inverarity?

(see the answer keys)

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