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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Ishmael say is ironic about the story the Takers adopted about two thousand years ago?
(a) It had been created by their enemies
(b) It did not represent their beliefs
(c) It had started as a joke
(d) The story did not originally have anything to do with them

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

3. What is the narrator’s first strategy for reconnecting to Ishmael in Chapter 10?
(a) Driving around looking
(b) Posting an ad
(c) Finding Mrs. Sokolow
(d) Apologizing to him

4. 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 consulting books
(c) By having mystical experiences
(d) By talking to prophets

5. What does Ishmael say a community lacks, when it has lost its diversity?
(a) A clear purpose
(b) Rigidity of roles
(c) Survival value
(d) Checks and balances

6. How long does it take the narrator to come up with the laws Ishmael asked him to define?
(a) One day
(b) Three days
(c) Two weeks
(d) Four days

7. What does the narrator tell Ishmael he wants to know in Chapter 11?
(a) Why he decided to teach
(b) Where Ishmael’s other students are
(c) Where the Sokolows have been
(d) The Leavers’ story

8. What knowledge does Ishmael say the early flyers would have fond useful in their attempts?
(a) The history of previous attempts to fly
(b) The laws of aerodynamics
(c) The mechanics of birds’ wings
(d) The dreams flight had inspired

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

10. When does Ishmael say the Take population will contract?
(a) When it runs out of natural resources
(b) When the population bomb explodes
(c) When the earth rebels
(d) When the populace outstrips its food supply

11. What is the literary term for Ishmael’s saying that he is cold?
(a) Prophecy
(b) Foreshadowing
(c) Denouement
(d) Falling action

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

13. What is the literary term for the running comparison to aeronauts?
(a) Parody
(b) Anaphora
(c) Parallel syntax
(d) Analogy

14. How does Ishmael say people think about prehistory, before the agricultural revolution?
(a) Appealing
(b) Idealistically
(c) Intriguing
(d) Loathsome

15. What does Ishmael say has been the result of the Takers’ interpretation of the law he and the narrator discuss in Chapter 8?
(a) To bring the world to its knees
(b) To establish one or two just civilizations
(c) To produce a paradise on earth
(d) To bring the benefits of civilization to more people than ever

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does Ishmael say is fueling the Third World population explosion?

2. What event does Ishmael put at 8,000 B.C. on his timeline?

3. What new name for the Leavers do Ishmael and the narrator arrive at in their discussion in Chapter 12?

4. Why has the change in Chapter 9 come about?

5. What does Ishmael say keeps nature in balance?

(see the answer keys)

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