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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. 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) Third.
(b) Depraved.
(c) Mysterious.
(d) Deadly.

2. 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) 100.
(b) 600.
(c) 900.
(d) 800.

3. What does Stanley Koteks ask Oedipa to look into at Yoyodyne when he thinks she is connected to the company?
(a) Clause on patents.
(b) Smoking ban.
(c) Clause on research.
(d) Mandatory teamwork.

4. What is the name of the religious splinter group Bortz attributes to changing the pornographic version of the play?
(a) Purtians.
(b) Thurn and Taxis.
(c) Schumites.
(d) Scurvhamites.

5. Who does Oedipa find in a pseudo-Mexican apartment building in Berkeley?
(a) Randolph Driblette.
(b) John Nefastis.
(c) Emory Bortz.
(d) Clerk Maxwell.

Short Answer Questions

1. In her investigations in Chapter 4, Oedipa goes to what kind of meeting at Yoyodyne?

2. Who does Dr. Hilarius think the police are when they come to his clinic?

3. 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?

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

5. As Oedipa sits in the apartment in Berkeley concentrating and awaiting the demon's message, what is on the TV?

Short Essay Questions

1. Oedipa compares her search for The Tristero to what process?

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

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

4. As Oedipa sits in rush hour traffic on the Bay Bridge, what does she determine she knows about Tristero?

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

6. What does the historical marker that Oedipa remembers seeing at Fangoso Lagoons commemorate?

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

8. What causes Oedipa to realize that every source of information on the Tristero can somehow be traced to Inverarity?

9. When Oedipa and Metzger go back to The Scope in Chapter 4, Mike Fallopian explains that there exists what kind of underground group?

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

(see the answer keys)

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