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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What event does Ishmael put at 8,000 B.C. on his timeline?
(a) The agricultural revolution
(b) The beginning of conquest-based warfare
(c) The beginning of written culture
(d) The discovery of metallurgy

2. What knowledge do the gods discover that allows them to rule the world without being criminals or negligent?
(a) The knowledge of the future
(b) The knowledge of who shall live and who shall die
(c) The knowledge of life
(d) The knowledge of secret texts

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

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

5. What does Mr. Partridge tell the narrator when he inquires at the Sokolow house in Chapter 10?
(a) That Mr. Sokolow’s daughter had died
(b) Where he can find Mrs. Sokolow
(c) Why the rent was cut off
(d) Where to find Ishmael

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

7. 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) Obliquely
(c) Directly
(d) Pragmatically

8. Why does the narrator have a hard time agreeing to Art Owens’ demands?
(a) He wants to be free of the whole business
(b) He dislikes Art Owens
(c) He does not have the money
(d) He cannot put a price on his friendship with Ishmael

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

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

11. What explanation does the narrator ultimately give for why he wants to know a specific question in Chapter 11?
(a) He admits that he wants to discredit Ishmael by seeing the other side of his teachings
(b) He wants to stop thinking about what Ishmael has told him
(c) He wants to publish Ishmael’s teachings
(d) He wants to stop the destruction of the world

12. What scenario does Ishmael describe in Chapter 7, which horrifies the narrator?
(a) A jungle where the animals have committee meetings
(b) The meetings of the gods, where the gods do nothing but bicker
(c) A city where every plant and tree is ordered
(d) A city where the neighbors eat each other

13. What does Ishmael say the narrator needs to tell him in Chapter 8 before the dialogue can resume?
(a) What he is willing to give up when the collapse comes
(b) What the end result of the Takers’ civilization will be
(c) What the law is that has been working from the beginning of time
(d) What the community is in which man is only one member among equals

14. According to Ishmael, which is NOT a ‘trick’ the gods played on the Takers?
(a) Neglecting to write down their laws for the benefit of men
(b) Failing to create man after a special fashion unique in nature
(c) Refusing to put the world in the center of the solar system and universe
(d) Not exempting man from the laws that govern populations of animals and plants.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Ishmael say the peace-keeping law promotes?

2. What is the big change that has taken place at the beginning of Chapter 9?

3. In Chapter 11, how does Ishmael define culture?

4. What reason explains the change of circumstances when the narrator returns to the office building after several days away from Ishmael in Chapter 10?

5. What is Art Owens’ negotiating style?

(see the answer keys)

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