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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Vonnegut is the third person in his family to have a one-person show and the second to put in time in a "laughing academy." What is he the first to do?
(a) Create art.
(b) Write.
(c) Divorce and remarry.
(d) Have an unhappy marriage.

2. How much does Vonnegut believe is enough to make a masterpiece? Beyond that, it is like empty talk at the end of a party.
(a) One-half.
(b) Three-fourths.
(c) Two-thirds.
(d) One-third.

3. What does Vonnegut say happens to American literary history, that "generations" of writers are separated by less than twenty years?
(a) There are more people being born.
(b) They have been so foreshortened.
(c) There are more writers.
(d) They are very young.

4. Why does Vonnegut miss his 50th high school reunion?
(a) He catches pneumonia.
(b) He forgets the date of his reunion.
(c) His plane is delayed.
(d) He contracts Lyme disease.

5. In Fates Worse Than Death, humorist Kurt Vonnegut examines the blindness of the American people to the hypocrisy of what administration?
(a) Smith Administration.
(b) Clinton Administration.
(c) Reagan Administration.
(d) Carter Administration.

6. How are Vonnegut and Elie Wiesel the same?
(a) They both have pet dogs.
(b) They are both Jewish.
(c) They are cousins.
(d) They share a German surname.

7. What does Vonnegut wish his father had insisted he study?
(a) Painting.
(b) Law.
(c) Engineering.
(d) Architecture.

8. He says his father is a rarity among Hoosiers. What other fantasy creature does the author compare his father to?
(a) Griffin.
(b) Unicorn.
(c) Dragon.
(d) Pegasus.

9. What is one thing Vonnegut mentions in his letter to the future?
(a) Leaders of the future should fix the environment issues through scientific discoveries.
(b) Countries in the future should stop communicating with one another.
(c) Today's rulers need to stop thinking science can fix anything for $1 trillion.
(d) Future generations need to use more petroleum for fuel.

10. For what does the traditional requiem ask?
(a) A heaven filled with angels playing harps.
(b) Eternal rest for the dead, where God's light perpetually shines on them.
(c) Entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven by Saint Peter.
(d) Sinners to be damned to Hell for all eternity.

11. Who is nearing economic, legal, and social equality only in Vonnegut's lifetime?
(a) Children.
(b) Women and racial minorities.
(c) Elderly people.
(d) Animals.

12. What practical joke does Vonnegut play at an ROTC inspection?
(a) He dresses like a clown.
(b) He wears every sort of medal he can find.
(c) He tells knock knock jokes.
(d) He wears a Boy Scout uniform.

13. In what year does the author's father die?
(a) 1957.
(b) 1977.
(c) 1947.
(d) 1857.

14. What is Vonnegut's opinion of Charlton Heston's commercials advocating that civilians keep military weapons?
(a) Vonnegut sees nothing wrong with encouraging the general public to carry military weapons.
(b) He would like to be able to join Heston in the commercials.
(c) Vonnegut believes military weapons, like loathsome germs, kill people every day and does not approve of the commercials.
(d) He finds them to be entertaining.

15. What does Vonnegut believe is declining but could return?
(a) Genocide.
(b) Sexism.
(c) Racism.
(d) Corporal punishment.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Vonnegut tell 1990 graduates of the University of Rhode Island?

2. Why do psychiatrists believe Mark is a misdiagnosed depressive?

3. Vonnegut references what Biblical story to his belief that people find life too hard and disappointing to act on repairing it?

4. Although Jill attends private school and vacations with the rich as a child, how does she provide for herself as a grown woman?

5. Besides Indianapolis what other U.S. city is designed by the architect L'Enfant?

(see the answer keys)

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