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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. What film director did Humboldt admire?
(a) Preston Sturges.
(b) Alfred Hitchcock.
(c) Orson Welles.
(d) David Lynch.

2. What article of writing does Charlie consider selling before realizing no one would be eager to buy it?
(a) "The Babylonian Talmud."
(b) "A Sack of Exotic Burlap."
(c) "Great Bores of the Modern World."
(d) "Mining Beryllium in Africa."

3. As Charlie recalls the old days, what profound topic does Charlie ruminate on during his wait to be called by the bailiff from the jury pool?
(a) Politics.
(b) Boredom.
(c) Freedom.
(d) The Nazis.

4. Despite an action Humboldt takes, Von Trenck is a hit. What does Humboldt do to try and prevent this?
(a) He attempts to bribe the critics.
(b) He pickets the theatre.
(c) He writes letters to newspapers about the play being bad.
(d) He tries to murder the main actors.

5. What is the reason Magnasco does not want to call the police on Humboldt?
(a) He is afraid Humboldt will attack him further.
(b) He does not want to get a bad name within the New York culture crowd.
(c) He intends to attack Humboldt himself when the time comes.
(d) He does not want revenge from Charlie Citrine.

Short Answer Questions

1. What disease did Charlie suffer from as a boy?

2. Where is Charlie's family originally from?

3. Why does Humboldt sneak into Dr. Longstaff's private elevator and have a meeting with him?

4. Where does Humboldt end up dying?

5. When is Lucy due back from Nevada?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Humboldt's reaction when Charlie tells him that the Chair, Ricketts, cannot give Humboldt a Poetry Chair because of budgetary reasons?

2. Humboldt cashes in Charlie's "blood-brother" check. How is this done at a very bad time in Charlie's life?

3. Humboldt used to accuse Charlie of trying to spend his whole life in the upper stories of higher consciousness. What is Humboldt's definition of higher consciousness?

4. When Charlie is being told by Judge Urbanovich that he cannot be allowed to dabble in the middle class and then drop out, how does Charlie react?

5. What does meeting Naomi Lutz, Charlie's school-days' sweetheart, lead him to thoughts of?

6. What does the protagonist mean when it is stated that, ". . . after all Broadway adjoins the garment district and blends with it?"

7. How is Humboldt acting towards Kathleen after he loses the poetry chair at Princeton?

8. Why does the Judge want to Charlie to post a large bail bond?

9. Humboldt basically dies a failure in society's eyes. What, upon his death, brings him back to prominence?

10. According to Humboldt, what is the only art intellectuals can be interested in?

(see the answer keys)

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