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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. When does the narrator recognize Ishmael in Chapter 1?
(a) When Ishmael growls
(b) When he is staring into his own eyes
(c) When Ishmael speaks to him
(d) When the keeper forces Ishmael to move

2. In Chapter 5, how does the narrator characterize the world without man?
(a) Raw material
(b) Paradise
(c) Post-apocalyptic dreamscape
(d) Bloody jungle

3. What does the narrator say the ad in Chapter 1 was looking for?
(a) Someone who wanted to work with gorillas
(b) Someone who wanted to change the world
(c) Someone who wanted to teach
(d) Someone who wanted to make an investment

4. What does the narrator say his relationship with Nazi Germany is?
(a) He is a student of it
(b) He is unaware of the details of Nazi rule
(c) He is moderately well informed about it
(d) He has always gone out of his way to avoid learning about it

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Ishmael say people were looking, when they came to the conclusion that man had undermined the universe’s plan, that he would rule nature?

2. What does Ishmael say is mythical about the story the narrator tells in Chapter 3?

3. In Chapter 4, how does the narrator say men used to live before they became men?

4. What does Ishmael say he wants, in Chapter 4, when the narrator finally realizes the truth of what Ishmael has been talking about?

5. What is the story the narrator tells in Chapter 3?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the narrator’s first encounter with Ishmael.

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

3. What does Ishmael say will be the result, once the narrator learns to hear Mother Culture’s voice?

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

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

6. What does Ishmael say man’s purpose is, in the narrator’s creation myth?

7. What is the narrator’s reaction when he finally recognizes his creation myth as a myth?

8. Why does Ishmael provide the narrator with a tape recorder?

9. What does the sign that the narrator notices behind the gorilla say, and what does the narrator interpret it to mean?

10. How does Ishmael say that their discussion is like sightseeing?

(see the answer keys)

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