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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the narrator say was removed when man learned to farm?
(a) The desire for earthly paradise
(b) The need to have respect for animals
(c) The limitations of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle
(d) The temptation to control nature

2. In Chapter 3, how does Ishmael tell the narrator to think, when he tries to get him to see the myth of his culture?
(a) Imaginatively
(b) Counter intuitively
(c) Mythological
(d) Like a child

3. How does Ishmael characterize the people who recognized the mythology of Hitler’s rule, but went along with it anyway?
(a) He describes them as silly children
(b) He characterizes them as mindless drones
(c) He describes them as animals in a stampede
(d) He characterizes them as panicked fish in a school

4. From whose perspective does Ishmael tell a rival creation story in Chapter 4?
(a) A jellyfish
(b) Someone from another planet
(c) A gorilla
(d) An indigenous person in Asia

5. In Chapter 4, why does the narrator say he does not display the emotion he wants when the narrator finally realizes the truth of what Ishmael has been talking about?
(a) He says that he still does not see
(b) He says that he is more flabbergasted than he could express
(c) He says that the pleasure of seeing is intellectual for him, not emotional
(d) He says that he does not show his emotions

6. How long ago did the Takers’ story come into existence?
(a) 200-300 years ago
(b) 20-30 thousand years ago
(c) 10-12 thousand years ago
(d) 2,000 years ago

7. Why does the narrator say he reacts so violently to the ad in Chapter 1?
(a) Because he had once taught lessons in saving the world himself
(b) Because he had never had any response when he ran similar ads himself
(c) Because he had once wanted to save the world
(d) Because he had always hoped to see an ad like this, but feels he had missed his chance

8. What pressure does the narrator say he feels to act out his culture’s stories?
(a) He says that his parents have threatened to disown him if he does not follow in their footsteps
(b) He says that if he doesn’t work, he won’t eat
(c) He says that his neighbors exclude him if he expressed doubt about the value of the culture
(d) He says that he has to go to admit his belief in court

9. What is a koan?
(a) A spur to meditation
(b) A paradox
(c) A secret.
(d) A riddle

10. Where does Ishmael say mankind’s flaw is?
(a) In the divine plan for mankind
(b) In human nature itself
(c) In the development of agriculture
(d) In its story of its origins

11. In Chapter 5, how does the narrator characterize the world without man?
(a) Paradise
(b) Raw material
(c) Bloody jungle
(d) Post-apocalyptic dreamscape

12. What does Ishmael tell the narrator to do, when the narrator cannot say what man’s destiny is in Chapter 5?
(a) Think historically
(b) Think metaphorically
(c) Think emotionally
(d) Think mythologically

13. What event does Ishmael say correlates to the birth of the Takers’ story?
(a) The beginning of writing
(b) The birth of agriculture
(c) The development of trade routes
(d) The discovery of metallurgy

14. Where does Ishmael say people were looking, when they came to the conclusion that man had undermined the universe’s plan, that he would rule nature?
(a) To human history itself
(b) To the tragedy of warfare
(c) To the order of the cosmos
(d) To the squalor of cities

15. What does the narrator say is his first impression of Ishmael?
(a) Terror
(b) Curiosity
(c) Tenderness
(d) Comfort

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter 6, what does Ishmael say is unobtainable in the narrator’s culture?

2. What does Ishmael say made Germans captive under Hitler?

3. How does Ishmael define a story?

4. What does the narrator say he does with the newspaper the first time he reads Ishmael’s ad?

5. What does Ishmael say the world was created for, in the narrator’s story in Chapter 4?

(see the answer keys)

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