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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the Company?
(a) The lottery players.
(b) The group that runs the lottery.
(c) The merchant's guild.
(d) The bank.

2. From what point of view is "The Approach of Al-Mu'tasim" written?
(a) Third person.
(b) Second person omniscient.
(c) Second person.
(d) First person.

3. Which poem does Pierre Menard describe as being an essential work of literature?
(a) The Road Not Taken.
(b) Bee! I'm expecting you!
(c) O Captain! My Captain!
(d) The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

4. What type of genre is Herbert Quain's first novel?
(a) Satire.
(b) Historical fiction.
(c) Detective fiction.
(d) Biography.

5. How does Pierre Menard describe "Don Quixote"?
(a) An essential work of literature.
(b) The work of an amateur.
(c) As an important work of literature.
(d) Trite and meaningless.

6. From what point of view is "The Library of Babel" written?
(a) Second person omniscient.
(b) First person.
(c) Third person.
(d) Second person.

7. What is Qaphqa?
(a) An ancient city.
(b) The leader of the Company.
(c) A privy.
(d) A stone lion.

8. From what point of view is "The Garden of Forking Paths" written?
(a) First person.
(b) Second person omniscient.
(c) Second person.
(d) Third person.

9. What does the narrator think of Pierre Menard's rewrite?
(a) It is the work of an amateur.
(b) It is trite and meaningless.
(c) It is illegal and immoral.
(d) It has more passion than the original.

10. In "The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim," where does the student go after he leaves Indapur?
(a) Bombay.
(b) Persia.
(c) Calcutta.
(d) Palanpur.

11. Who is the student searching for in "The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim"?
(a) A saint who walks the Earth.
(b) The blind astrologer.
(c) The Hindu family.
(d) The Moslem family.

12. Which books often drive people to insanity?
(a) All of them.
(b) Crimson Hexagons.
(c) Vindications.
(d) Books of law.

13. What does the god of the temple promise the protagonist of "The Circular Ruins"?
(a) To bring his daughter to life.
(b) To keep his son safe.
(c) To create a sunrise.
(d) To bring his son to life.

14. Why are some lottery players imprisoned?
(a) They refuse to buy tickets.
(b) They steal tickets.
(c) They murder the winners.
(d) They refuse to pay a fine.

15. Who is the narrator in "An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain"?
(a) Al-Mu'tasim.
(b) Borges.
(c) Menard.
(d) Quain.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does the narrator discover "The First Encyclopedia of Tlon"?

2. In "The Circular Ruins," what happens to the body organ in the protagonist's dream?

3. From what point of view is "The Circular Ruins" written?

4. Why is it impossible to destroy all the books in the library?

5. Who is Ts'ui Pen?

(see the answer keys)

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