View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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

2. 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 produce a paradise on earth
(c) To bring the benefits of civilization to more people than ever
(d) To establish one or two just civilizations

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

4. Why is Ishmael reticent about telling the narrator what he wants to know in Chapter 11?
(a) He is afraid that the narrator will stop coming to him once he knows
(b) He is irritated by the narrator’s failure to prevent his eviction
(c) He feels the narrator is merely curious
(d) He does not want to divulge the information

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

6. 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

7. What is Art Owens’ negotiating style?
(a) He does not budge at all
(b) He is somewhat flexible
(c) He is amenable to make sacrifices in order to find an agreeable proposal
(d) He is hostile and suspicious, and only gives ground with a fight

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

9. How does Ishmael say the aeronauts proceeded to learn to fly?
(a) By following inspirations from their dreams
(b) By controlled experiments
(c) By research and observation
(d) By trial and error

10. What subsequent interruption kept the narrator from returning for another few days in Chapter 10?
(a) A work deadline
(b) A woman
(c) Laziness
(d) A medical condition

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) Pragmatically
(c) Directly
(d) Obliquely

12. 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

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

14. 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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is a paean?

2. What is the second thing that the narrator says the Takers do, which is not done in nature?

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

4. Where does Ishmael say, in Chapter 7, they should look for a set of laws about how to live?

5. What looming crisis does Ishmael imply will correct the ‘Takers’’ excesses?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 594 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample