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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What does the narrator say, in Chapter 7, Mother Culture says about humanity’s relation to nature’s laws?
(a) That they can never be broken
(b) That there is always a price for breaking them
(c) That wise men and criminals can get away with breaking them, but the general populace cannot
(d) That they do not apply to man

3. 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) Depression
(c) Hope
(d) Optimism

4. According to Ishmael, which is NOT a ‘trick’ the gods played on the Takers?
(a) Failing to create man after a special fashion unique in nature
(b) Neglecting to write down their laws for the benefit of men
(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.

5. How does Ishmael characterize the law the narrator is looking for?
(a) A culture-defining law
(b) A peace-keeping law
(c) An unspoken law
(d) The law that ensures justice

6. 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 have a glorious name
(d) The temptation to rule over men

7. Where is Ishmael’s reference to the Second Murderer drawn from?
(a) Plato’s Republic
(b) Mamet’s Oleanna
(c) Shakespeare’s Macbeth
(d) Homer’s The Iliad

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

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

10. What does Ishmael say ‘Eve’ means?
(a) Energy
(b) Life
(c) Helpmeet
(d) Breath

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

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

13. In Chapter 11, how does Ishmael define culture?
(a) As the set of answers to a people’s most pressing questions
(b) As the knowledge that is passed down generation to generation
(c) As the total set of a people’s actions and words
(d) As the things a people cannot give up without becoming someone else

14. What new name for the Takers do Ishmael and the narrator arrive at in their discussion in Chapter 12?
(a) Those who follow the old ways
(b) Those who invent themselves
(c) Those who know good and evil
(d) Those who live in the gods’ hands

15. For whose benefit does Ishmael say the Leavers accumulate and preserve knowledge?
(a) The community of life
(b) Themselves
(c) Their food supply
(d) The creatures they are responsible for

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator tell Ishmael he wants to know in Chapter 11?

2. What is a paean?

3. How does Ishmael say the aeronauts proceeded to learn to fly?

4. When does Ishmael say the event he put at 8,000 B.C. on his timeline ended?

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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