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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where does the narrator reunite with Ishmael in Chapter 10?
(a) In the woods
(b) At a motel
(c) At another office building
(d) At a carnival

2. What item does the narrator bring Ishmael at the carnival?
(a) Newspapers
(b) Blankets
(c) Books
(d) Food

3. Who does Ishmael say is fueling the Third World population explosion?
(a) The World Bank
(b) Third World farmers
(c) Women
(d) First world farmers

4. 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

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

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

7. What does the narrator find when he returns to the office building in Chapter 10 after several days away from Ishmael?
(a) Ishmael is sick
(b) Ishmael has died
(c) Ishmael has been evicted
(d) Ishmael will not talk to him

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

9. In Chapter 7, what law does Ishmael say he is looking for?
(a) The law of cultural evolution
(b) The law that keeps individuals content within the community
(c) The law that keeps the community together
(d) The law of how to pass knowledge from one generation to another

10. What method does the narrator say he would use, to deduce the laws of the group Ishmael describes in Chapter 7?
(a) Controlled experiments
(b) Close observation
(c) Library research
(d) Interviews

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

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

13. 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 had started as a joke
(c) It did not represent their beliefs
(d) The story did not originally have anything to do with them

14. Why has the change in Chapter 9 come about?
(a) Ishmael and the narrator have finally come to some fundamental understandings about culture
(b) There was nothing more they could say without making this change
(c) The narrator had requested it
(d) Ishmael had made it a condition of their dialogue continuing

15. What does Ishmael say the Takers repudiated when they split from the Leavers?
(a) Natural selection
(b) Powerlessness
(c) Passivity
(d) Death

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator say, in Chapter 7, Mother Culture says about humanity’s relation to nature’s laws?

2. For whose benefit does Ishmael say the Takers accumulate and preserve knowledge?

3. What does the narrator say he feels when he takes a few days off from his discussion with Ishmael in Chapter 8?

4. How does the narrator characterize Art Owens?

5. What does Ishmael say is the premise of the Leavers’ story?

(see the answer keys)

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