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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why are Vonnegut's jokes not funny?
(a) He is skilled at letting readers off the hook.
(b) He lacks a way to let readers off the hook.
(c) He never attempts to tell jokes.
(d) His jokes are immature and childish.

2. With what magazine does Vonnegut travel to Mozambique in 1990 to write an article?
(a) Parade.
(b) The New Yorker.
(c) National Geographic.
(d) US News and World Report.

3. Those with addiction eventually hit rock bottom. Vonnegut believes Western Civilization hit rock bottom in World War I. Unlike those with addictions who admit that their addiction is ruining their lives, how does Western Civilization react to hitting rock bottom?
(a) It realizes that its addiction is affecting human life, but it does not care.
(b) It continues to be ignorant of the disease and continues to allow those who are sick to be kept in positions of power.
(c) It reacts in a similar way to those who are addicted.
(d) It buys more electronic devices to distract itself.

4. What does Vonnegut never think he owes to himself or the world?
(a) To become a litigator.
(b) To return to writing.
(c) To write a book about Jackson Pollock.
(d) To forgive his mother.

5. What is the name of the Bishop Vonnegut travels with to the Galapagos?
(a) Bishop Moore.
(b) Bishop Vale.
(c) Bishop Morgan.
(d) Bishop Smith.

6. What is the definition of this society of which Dr. Robert Redfield speaks?
(a) It is isolated geographically and members agree on what life is about and behave uniformly.
(b) It is an organization that encourages country living.
(c) It is an organization that teaches folk dances of various cultures.
(d) It is a wide-spread belief in diversity and acceptance of others.

7. Although people with acute mental disorder are less often written off as hopeless, why is there still a lack of certainty for patients and their families?
(a) Medications can have severe adverse effects.
(b) Psychological testing is dangerous.
(c) A dozen separate diseases are still lumped together as schizophrenia/manic depression.
(d) Most patients still have to be institutionalized.

8. What is an example of a book that Vonnegut believes moralizes?
(a) "Blubber."
(b) "Lord of the Rings."
(c) "Gulliver's Travels."
(d) "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing."

9. With whom does Vonnegut travel to Mozambique?
(a) Jill Krementz.
(b) Mark Vonnegut.
(c) Bill Pilgrim.
(d) John Yale.

10. From what event can ordinary humans not learn how much pain and humiliation to endure before calling an end to everything?
(a) Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
(b) Holocaust.
(c) Sending the Tibetans into exhile.
(d) Romans throwing the Christians to the lions.

11. What does Vonnegut believe may unite mankind, by creating a generation that does not need to fight to be disillusioned by war?
(a) Television.
(b) Unitarianism.
(c) Socialism.
(d) World peace.

12. What does Vonnegut require of translators?
(a) They must speak Italian, English, as well as another language.
(b) They must be more gifted writers than he and speak at least two languages, including his.
(c) They must ask him many questions about his work.
(d) They must do as he says.

13. What is a scheme of self-defense that only maligned and oppressed minorities should be allowed to use?
(a) Humor.
(b) Murder.
(c) Threats.
(d) Humiliation.

14. What German-American movement did not survive?
(a) The German-American Quaker movement.
(b) The Deutchland movement.
(c) The German-American Freethinker movement.
(d) The Pennsylvania Dutch movement.

15. Why are Germans frightening?
(a) They like to fight those from other cultures.
(b) They like to fight other white people.
(c) They murder thousands during World War II.
(d) They do not like Jews.

Short Answer Questions

1. Jane, Vonnegut's first wife, is born a Quaker and dies as a member of what denomination?

2. What do many of Vonnegut's books, including this one, not include?

3. Why are ex-hippies ashamed to belong to their social class?

4. Vonnegut's 1990 article in the New York Times observes that American humorists/satirists grow to be what past a certain age?

5. What features imperialism, the capture of other societies' lands, and treasure by arms?

(see the answer keys)

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