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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. What does Ishmael say, in Chapter 5, is man’s purpose on the earth?
(a) To fulfill it
(b) To dream it
(c) To rule it
(d) To perfect it

2. Where does Ishmael say he was born?
(a) India
(b) Tibet.
(c) Memphis
(d) West Africa

3. In the narrator’s account of his culture, in Chapter 5, what was the problem early man had to solve?
(a) If he stayed in one place, he would be subject to wars
(b) If he stayed in one place, he would exhaust his food supply
(c) If he wanted to farm, he would have to kill off the hunter-gatherers
(d) If he traded with other cultures, he would lose his women

4. In Chapter 3, how does Ishmael tell the narrator to think, when he tries to get him to see the myth of his culture?
(a) Imaginatively
(b) Like a child
(c) Counter intuitively
(d) Mythological

5. How does Ishmael get the narrator to recognize the limitation of his creation myth?
(a) By asking him to consider whether his own discontent was part of evolution as well
(b) By asking him whether evolution continued beyond man
(c) By asking him to think about the world without people in it
(d) By asking him to describe the same story from an ant’s perspective

Short Answer Questions

1. What manipulation does the narrator say man had to learn in order to master his environment?

2. What does the narrator say his relationship with Nazi Germany is?

3. How does Ishmael characterize the notion that agriculture started in the Fertile Crescent?

4. What does Ishmael say is the consequence of thinking that the world was made for us?

5. Upon answering the ad, what does the narrator say he finds in the room when he goes in?

Short Essay Questions

1. How would you characterize Ishmael’s tone with the narrator in general, as they talk regularly?

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

3. How does the narrator react when Ishmael finally gets him to see that his culture’s narrative is just a myth—and what is the significance of the narrator’s response?

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

5. How does Ishmael say Hitler captivated the German people?

6. What turning point does the narrator describe in his story of his culture’s history?

7. How does the narrator characterize the problems with the narrator’s culture?

8. What are the definitions Ishmael lays out for the narrator?

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

10. What was the consequence of agriculture in the narrator’s account?

(see the answer keys)

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