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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Chapter 5, what perspective does Ishmael say the narrator should look at the world from?
(a) From outer space
(b) From a woman’s perspective
(c) From a jellyfish’s perspective
(d) From the earth’s perspective

2. What does Ishmael say is the pinnacle of the story the narrator tells in Chapter 3?
(a) God’s laws
(b) Literature
(c) A just society
(d) Man himself

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

4. What does the narrator say, in Chapter 6, is the problem with his culture’s story?
(a) The narrator says that conquering the earth has meant destroying it
(b) The narrator says that conquering the earth has provided freedoms that are worth the earth’s destruction.
(c) The narrator says that technology has sped up the destruction of the earth so much that no one can stop it
(d) The narrator says that there has been a strong conservation movement, opposing industrial progress

5. Why does the narrator say he answers the newspaper ad?
(a) To see who else shows up
(b) To make sure that it is just a scam
(c) To be part of the crowd
(d) To see what he can learn

6. What is the narrator’s reaction when he hears the rival creation story Ishmael tells in Chapter 4?
(a) He is furious
(b) He is amused
(c) He sees the point immediately
(d) He does not understand it

7. In Chapter 6, what does Ishmael say is unobtainable in the narrator’s culture?
(a) An understanding of the goal of human culture
(b) Freedom from guilt
(c) Certain knowledge about how to live
(d) An orientation to natural laws

8. What is the story the narrator tells in Chapter 3?
(a) The war between good and evil
(b) God’s expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden
(c) God’s creation of the universe
(d) The evolution of man

9. What does Ishmael say he can offer the narrator in Chapter 3?
(a) A set of practical tools for changing the world
(b) Access to mystical experience
(c) A new perception of the world
(d) A network of people who resist culture

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

11. What role does Ishmael say the Fertile Crescent plays in the narrator’s story?
(a) Center of the world
(b) A distraction
(c) The birthplace of culture
(d) Legendary birthplace of agriculture

12. What does the narrator say made the difference between men before and the men that live now?
(a) Writing
(b) Stories
(c) Language
(d) Agriculture

13. In Chapter 4, how does the narrator say men used to live before they became men?
(a) Like every other creature
(b) He says that they were always men
(c) Like the chosen creatures
(d) Like the least noble creatures

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

15. How long ago did the Leavers’ story come into existence?
(a) 200 years ago
(b) 2-3 million years
(c) 2-3 thousand years
(d) 300 years ago

Short Answer Questions

1. When does the narrator’s creation story begin?

2. What does Ishmael say he wants, in Chapter 4, when the narrator finally realizes the truth of what Ishmael has been talking about?

3. How does the narrator say, in Chapter 4, that he got himself to see the middle of the story?

4. What does the narrator find on the arm of his chair during his third dialogue with Ishmael?

5. How does Ishmael say Takers regard the world?

(see the answer keys)

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