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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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 to find Ishmael
(c) Where he can find Mrs. Sokolow
(d) Why the rent was cut off

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

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

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

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

6. Why does the narrator say he groans when Ishmael asks him how man became man?
(a) He says that he is impatient to know already
(b) He says that he is tired of being the student who does not know things
(c) He says that questions of that sort intimidate him
(d) He feels that Ishmael is mocking him

7. What does Ishmael say a community lacks, when it has lost its diversity?
(a) Checks and balances
(b) Rigidity of roles
(c) Survival value
(d) A clear purpose

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

9. 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 cannot put a price on his friendship with Ishmael
(d) He does not have the money

10. How does the narrator characterize the work, in Taker culture, of killing off nature?
(a) Sacrilegious
(b) Tragic
(c) Holy
(d) Necessary

11. 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 been evicted
(c) Ishmael will not talk to him
(d) Ishmael has died

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

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

14. For whose benefit does Ishmael say the Takers accumulate and preserve knowledge?
(a) The world
(b) The elect
(c) Their food supply
(d) Themselves

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Ishmael describe civilization’s progress in Chapter 7?

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

3. Where is Ishmael’s reference to the Second Murderer drawn from?

4. What is a paean?

5. What knowledge does Ishmael say the early flyers would have fond useful in their attempts?

(see the answer keys)

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