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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Ishmael characterize the Takers’ response to the law he and the narrator discuss in Chapter 8?
(a) They claimed that it did not apply to them
(b) They argued that it was against their constitution
(c) They found that they could get away with breaking it indefinitely
(d) They found that they could use it to their unfair advantage

2. Where does Ishmael say, in Chapter 7, they should look for a set of laws about how to live?
(a) Human behavior
(b) Literature
(c) Anthropology
(d) The heavens

3. What does Ishmael say happens to the Leavers that does not happen to the Takers?
(a) Their population shrinks
(b) They evolve
(c) They die when the gods say
(d) Their knowledge is jeopardized each generation

4. What is the second thing that the narrator says the Takers do, which is not done in nature?
(a) Sell their produce
(b) Turn killing into an abstract law
(c) Steal other animals’ food
(d) Deny competitors access to food

5. What temptation does Ishmael say Adam succumbed to when he took the fruit from Eve in the Bible story?
(a) The temptation to have a glorious name
(b) The temptation to rule over men
(c) The temptation to live without limit
(d) The temptation to have power over Eve

6. How does Ishmael propose, in Chapter 7, to learn how they can find out for themselves how to live?
(a) By looking at what is actually there
(b) By talking to prophets
(c) By consulting books
(d) By having mystical experiences

7. What is a paean?
(a) A death knell
(b) A parody
(c) A praise song
(d) A requiem

8. What new name for the Takers do Ishmael and the narrator arrive at in their discussion in Chapter 12?
(a) Those who follow the old ways
(b) Those who invent themselves
(c) Those who live in the gods’ hands
(d) Those who know good and evil

9. What does Ishmael say is the premise of the Leavers’ story?
(a) Man is his own god
(b) The world belongs to man
(c) The gods exist to do man’s bidding
(d) Man belongs to the world

10. What does the narrator talk to Art Owens about?
(a) Buying Ishmael
(b) Getting Ishmael a doctor
(c) Improving Ishmael’s conditions
(d) The weather

11. In Chapter 12, how does Ishmael say man became man?
(a) By reassessing tradition every generation
(b) By living in the hands of the gods
(c) By following his intuitions
(d) By taking his fate upon himself

12. What does Ishmael say the peace-keeping law promotes?
(a) Consolidation of power
(b) Longevity
(c) Diversity
(d) Civilization

13. How does Ishmael describe the first farmers?
(a) Blunderers
(b) Technocrats
(c) Bureaucrats
(d) Scientists

14. What does the law Ishmael believes the narartor is looking for in Chapter 8 prevent?
(a) Single-species dominance
(b) A howling chaos
(c) Civilization
(d) Injustice

15. What keeps the narrator from returning to Ishmael the next day, after discussing Adam and Eve?
(a) A visiting uncle
(b) His work
(c) Car trouble
(d) Resistance to Ishmael’s teaching

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter 7, what law does Ishmael say he is looking for?

2. What does the narrator find when he returns to the office building in Chapter 10 after several days away from Ishmael?

3. What is Art Owens’ negotiating style?

4. How does Ishmael characterize the gods in his description of their debates?

5. What does Ishmael say is ironic about the story the Takers adopted about two thousand years ago?

(see the answer keys)

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