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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. According to the narrator of "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling," why did his wife abandon the family?
(a) To act.
(b) To paint.
(c) To travel.
(d) To write.

2. What did Alex demonstrate about a nonhuman species, according to the narrator of "The Great Silence"?
(a) That one could grasp abstract concepts.
(b) That one could be smarter than humans.
(c) That one could create a mythology.
(d) That one could communicate.

3. According to the narrator of "The Great Silence," what word means both hope and breathing?
(a) Aspiration.
(b) Emission.
(c) Emanation.
(d) Exhalation.

4. How does the narrator of "The Great Silence" describe the extinction of its species?
(a) As the silencing of their voice.
(b) As the great darkness.
(c) As the loss of beauty.
(d) As the end of the world.

5. How does the narrator of "The Great Silence" describe the fact that humans overlook a nonhuman species capable of communicating right in their backyard?
(a) As hyperbolic.
(b) As metaphorical.
(c) As symbolic.
(d) As ironic.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Jijingi learn about the act of writing?

2. According to the narrator of “Dacey’s Patent Automatic Nanny,” Reginald Dacey is so compelled to finish his creation that he is not even deterred by what event?

3. What is the name of the storyteller in Jijingi’s village?

4. What observatory does the narrator of "The Great Silence" often ponder?

5. According to the narrator at the end of "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling," why has he begun creating his own lifelog?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Angela in "The Truth of Facts, the Truth of Feeling"? What does the reader learn about her on page 186?

2. What happens after the Automatic Nanny hits the market in 1901? Why does it ultimately fail?

3. As stated in "Omphalos," how old is the universe? How have scientists learned this information?

4. Who is Vinessa in "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom"? What does Dana learn about her at the end of the story?

5. Who is Arthur Lawson and what has he discovered? What does this discovery indicate?

6. How is Edmund a product of his childhood in "Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny"?

7. What is the Fermi Paradox? What are two solutions that attempt to solve it?

8. What are contact calls, as explained in "The Great Silence"? What do they have in common with Arecibo?

9. Who is Moseby? What does he promise to teach Jijingi in "The Truth of Facts, the Truth of Feeling"?

10. What does the narrator of "The Great Silence" say is notable about the word "aspiration" on page 234?

(see the answer keys)

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