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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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 have a glorious name
(c) The temptation to live without limit
(d) The temptation to rule over men

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

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

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

5. What looming crisis does Ishmael imply will correct the ‘Takers’’ excesses?
(a) Drought
(b) Warfare
(c) Population explosion
(d) Famine

6. Why does the narrator say that he understands why Ishmael asked him to define the laws himself?
(a) Because Ishmael did not want him to be reliant upon him
(b) Because if Ishmael had described them, he would not have thought them important
(c) Because he had to relinquish beliefs of his own, to see the laws
(d) Because Ishmael wanted to get him accustomed to doing things for himself, for when Ishmael was no longer around

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

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

9. What does the narrator say is new about Ishmael’s expression at the beginning of Chapter 7?
(a) Twinkle-eyed playfulness
(b) Mocking raillery
(c) A searching gaze
(d) Gloominess

10. What reason explains the change of circumstances when the narrator returns to the office building after several days away from Ishmael in Chapter 10?
(a) Ishmael met another student
(b) Ishmael was insulted by the narrator’s days away
(c) Ishmael’s caretaker was not paying the rent
(d) Ishmael was getting old

11. When the narrator cannot answer Ishmael’s question, ‘how did man become man?’, how does Ishmael say they will address the question?
(a) Matter-of-factly
(b) Directly
(c) Pragmatically
(d) Obliquely

12. How does Ishmael describe civilization’s progress in Chapter 7?
(a) As a building built on water
(b) As a corpse that has been kept alive artificially
(c) As a garden that has worn out the soil
(d) As the free-fall of an aircraft that does not accord with the laws of aerodynamics

13. What is the big change that has taken place at the beginning of Chapter 9?
(a) Ishmael has been evicted
(b) Ishmael and the narrator meet in a new location
(c) Ishmael is on the narrator’s side of the glass
(d) Ishmael is speaking aloud

14. 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 found that they could use it to their unfair advantage
(c) They argued that it was against their constitution
(d) They found that they could get away with breaking it indefinitely

15. Why does the narrator say he feels a particular feeling after taking a few days off from his discussion with the narrator in Chapter 8?
(a) Because he does not believe that he can change anything himself
(b) Because he expects to be abandoned once he has finished Ishmael’s teachings
(c) Because he is seeing clearly for the first time in his life
(d) Because he is confident that he can use his new knowledge to change things

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the narrator characterize Art Owens?

2. What does Ishmael say ‘Eve’ means?

3. What is the literary term for the running comparison to aeronauts?

4. What does the narrator say when Ishmael asks if he would go back to prehistoric times?

5. What explanation does the narrator ultimately give for why he wants to know a specific question in Chapter 11?

(see the answer keys)

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