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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. Genghis Cohen shows Oedipa a Pony Express stamp from 1940 with the _______ symbol on the back.
(a) Tristero.
(b) Nefastis.
(c) WASTE.
(d) Yoyodyne.

2. In Oedipa's search for the source text for the Jacobean revenge play , the publisher sends her to a warehouse in what city?
(a) Sacramento.
(b) Los Angeles.
(c) San Francisco.
(d) Oakland.

3. As Oedipa walks around the college campus in Chapter 5, she realizes her education made her what?
(a) Unfit for this world.
(b) Unfit for protests.
(c) Unfit for being a sensitive.
(d) Unfit for deciphering texts.

4. Who does Oedipa dream about as she sleeps in the hotel in Berkeley?
(a) Driblette.
(b) Inverarity.
(c) Metzger.
(d) Mucho.

5. Genghis Cohen gives Oedipa a supposed translation from an article in an 1865 issue of Bibliotheque des Timbrophiles, which recounts a great schism in Tristero during what time period?
(a) The Black Plague.
(b) The American Revolution.
(c) The Bolshevik Revolution.
(d) The French Revolution.

Short Answer Questions

1. While wandering amongst the tourists in downtown San Francisco, Oedipa sees what on a lapel pin?

2. Oedipa arrives at a German Baroque hotel in the Berkeley hills which is hosting a meeting of what organization?

3. What does Stanley Koteks ask Oedipa to look into at Yoyodyne when he thinks she is connected to the company?

4. In Chapter 5, it is explained that the equations for the entropy of heat-engines coincidentally resemble the equations for what?

5. Bortz imagines one visionary militant addressing a group of Tristero members in a tavern to propose a merger with official postal couriers. What name does he give to this visionary?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the story behind the religious splinter group known as the Scurvhamites that Professor Bortz tells Oedipa about?

2. What connection does Oedipa make between the old German stamp with Thurn and Taxis printed on it which has a post horn, resembling the WASTE symbol, in each corner and the scene from The Courier's Tragedy?

3. What causes Oedipa to realize that every source of information on the Tristero can somehow be traced to 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. Why does Nefastis contend that only a sensitive person can work his machine?

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

8. Inamorati Anonymous' association to the muted post horn symbol seems purely accidental, yet what are some similarities this group has to the Tristero?

9. Why does Oedipa consider her job as co-executor to be similar to Driblette's job as director of a play?

10. What is the story behind the founding of Inamorati Anonymous?

(see the answer keys)

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