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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Chapter 4, how does the narrator say men used to live before they became men?
(a) He says that they were always men
(b) Like the chosen creatures
(c) Like every other creature
(d) Like the least noble creatures

2. What does the narrator say, in Chapter 6, is the problem with his culture’s story?
(a) The narrator says that technology has sped up the destruction of the earth so much that no one can stop it
(b) The narrator says that there has been a strong conservation movement, opposing industrial progress
(c) The narrator says that conquering the earth has provided freedoms that are worth the earth’s destruction.
(d) The narrator says that conquering the earth has meant destroying it

3. What does Ishmael say is the premise of the narrator’s creation myth?
(a) That the world is a mystery no one understands
(b) That the world is made for man
(c) That man belongs in the midst, not on the top of the community of life
(d) That man is an exile in his consciousness

4. How does the narrator say, in Chapter 4, that he got himself to see the middle of the story?
(a) By thinking about writing it as a treatment for Nova
(b) By thinking about telling it to a child
(c) By thinking about the moments when he learned the story himself
(d) By thinking about what a Martian observer would see

5. How does Ishmael respond when the narrator says that he does not believe that he is part of a story?
(a) He says that it is easier to believe in more incredible things
(b) He says that belief is unimportant
(c) He says that belief is less important than action
(d) He says that belief is the beginning of resistance

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter 6, Ishmael says that the narrator’s account of man’s progress stopped being applicable—how long ago?

2. What does Ishmael say, in Chapter 2, about the path he will take the narrator on?

3. What is a koan?

4. What does Ishmael say the world was created for, in the narrator’s story in Chapter 4?

5. How does Ishmael define a story?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is the narrator so upset to see Ishmael’s ad in the paper?

2. What is the narrator’s creation myth?

3. What does the narrator’s culture’s reliance on prophets indicate to Ishmael?

4. What is the premise that is being played out in the narrator’s creation myth, according to Ishmael?

5. How does Ishmael characterize the earth before the development of human culture?

6. What does Ishmael say is his greatest fantasy?

7. What correlation does Ishmael draw between Nazi Germany and the narrator’s culture?

8. What is the rival creation story Ishmael tells the narrator?

9. Why does Walter Sokolow adopt Ishmael?

10. What is the ‘but’ Ishmael says is part of the narrator’s culture’s myth, and where does the ‘but’ come from?

(see the answer keys)

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