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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. Why does Oedipa return to Kinneret to see Dr. Hilarius?
(a) To tell him she longer wants to be his patient.
(b) To see if she is suffering from psychosis.
(c) To get hallucinogenic drugs.
(d) To get tranquilzers.

2. As Mucho and Oedipa eat at a pizzeria, what does Mucho notice about one violin heard on the Muzak playing in the restaurant?
(a) The C string is out of tune.
(b) The bass is too high.
(c) The bass is too low.
(d) The E string is tuned too sharp.

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

4. When Oedipa meets Mike Fallopian for the second time, he tells her it is difficult to find documentary proof of what?
(a) Attacks on mail carriers.
(b) The Trystero.
(c) Acts of true kindness.
(d) The Second Law of Thermodynamics.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. At Professor Bortz's house, Oedipa asks Bortz to tell her about the historical Wharfinger. Bortz sneers, saying he can only talk about __________.

2. What was the name of the author of the preface of the "Plays of Ford, Webster, Tourneur and Wharfinger," who Oedipa travels to the Cal State campus to find?

3. Tristero y Calavera set up his own postal system and called himself El Desheredado, which meant what?

4. What happens to Oedipa after she knocks on the door of Dr. Hilarius's office in Chapter 5?

5. 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?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Describe the Nefastis Machine as it was explained by Stanley Koteks.

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

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

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

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

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

9. Why are WASTE mail boxes located under freeways?

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

(see the answer keys)

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