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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What tough question does Vonnegut's book "Player Piano" ask?
(a) What will happen to our planet in the future?
(b) Why do people hurt one another?
(c) When will there be world peace?
(d) What are people for?

2. What does Vonnegut dream the world will be like in 1,000 years?
(a) There will still be rich and poor, but all will be descendants of people who endure insults without committing suicide or murder.
(b) There will be no world in 1,000 years.
(c) German descendants will be running the planet.
(d) There will be no humankind, because the various world leaders will lead their countries into massive wars.

3. What does Dr. Robert Redfield insist every society passes through?
(a) The "Folk Society" stage.
(b) The "Marxist Society" stage.
(c) The "Modern Society" stage.
(d) The "Fauvist Society" stage.

4. 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 buys more electronic devices to distract itself.
(c) It continues to be ignorant of the disease and continues to allow those who are sick to be kept in positions of power.
(d) It reacts in a similar way to those who are addicted.

5. What does Vonnegut compare to an alcoholic stockbroker not wanting his head in a Port Authority Bus Terminal toilet?
(a) Western Civilization builds weapons and convinces civilians to hate groups of humanity, but they do not want big wars.
(b) Third World Countries.
(c) Mozambicans.
(d) Presidents Bush and Reagan.

6. Vonnegut's 1990 article in the New York Times observes that American humorists/satirists grow to be what past a certain age?
(a) Sarcastic old men.
(b) Grumpy.
(c) Intolerably unfunny pessimists.
(d) Enthusiastic optimists.

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

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

9. How does Rita Rait become the winner of a limerick contest?
(a) She creates a competition and enters her own work.
(b) She is the best limerick writer in Russia.
(c) She wins the prize left by an eccentric British millionaire for the wittiest original limerick.
(d) She is married to the judge.

10. The "Religious Revival" Vonnegut describes has two commandments. What are they?
(a) Be free and live in peace.
(b) Have no other god but me and other thy father and they mother.
(c) Divide and conquer.
(d) Stop thinking and obey.

11. For Vonnegut writing books is like what?
(a) Riding a bike.
(b) Singing a song.
(c) Any other job.
(d) Eating a peanut butter sandwich.

12. Why are ex-hippies ashamed to belong to their social class?
(a) The social class is so pandered to by the administration that its young do not have to go and do not want to go to war.
(b) They despise Vietnam vets.
(c) They are embarrassed by their actions in the 1960s.
(d) They wish they had participated in the Vietnam War.

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

14. After reading William Styron's DARKNESS VISIBLE how does Vonnegut classify those that are suicidal?
(a) Those that blame it on brain wiring and chemistry or those that blame the Universe
(b) They are either depressed or schizophrenic.
(c) Those that are severe and those that are minor.
(d) Those that leave notes and those that do not.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What pictures would Vonnegut hang if he were president of MIT?

2. To what does Vonnegut compare ignoring distractions and repeating a mantra?

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

4. Why does Vonnegut believe Christians have no alternative but to hate and then kill in imaginary self-defense?

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

(see the answer keys)

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