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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. What does Ishmael ask the narrator to leave and come back with in Chapter 11?
(a) A plan for his future care
(b) A genuine apology
(c) An explanation for his ailments
(d) A legitimate reason for asking about the Leavers

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

5. How does the narrator characterize Art Owens?
(a) A hard-eyed black man
(b) A sly, backhanded snake
(c) An energetic cannonball of a man
(d) A weary gentleman

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

7. What does the narrator say he feels when he takes a few days off from his discussion with Ishmael in Chapter 8?
(a) Irritation
(b) Hope
(c) Depression
(d) Optimism

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

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

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

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

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

13. How does Ishmael characterize the gods in his description of their debates?
(a) As squabblers
(b) As wise men
(c) As troublemakers
(d) As short-sighted people

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. What does the law Ishmael believes the narartor is looking for in Chapter 8 prevent?

4. What scenario does Ishmael describe in Chapter 7, which horrifies the narrator?

5. How does Ishmael propose, in Chapter 7, to learn how they can find out for themselves how to live?

(see the answer keys)

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