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

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

3. Why has the change in Chapter 9 come about?
(a) The narrator had requested it
(b) There was nothing more they could say without making this change
(c) Ishmael had made it a condition of their dialogue continuing
(d) Ishmael and the narrator have finally come to some fundamental understandings about culture

4. 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 rule over men
(c) The temptation to live without limit
(d) The temptation to have a glorious name

5. Where does Ishmael say, in Chapter 7, they should look for a set of laws about how to live?
(a) The heavens
(b) Human behavior
(c) Literature
(d) Anthropology

Short Answer Questions

1. Why is Ishmael reticent about telling the narrator what he wants to know in Chapter 11?

2. What is the big change that has taken place at the beginning of Chapter 9?

3. What explanation does the narrator ultimately give for why he wants to know a specific question in Chapter 11?

4. What is the literary term for the running comparison to aeronauts?

5. How does the narrator characterize the work, in Taker culture, of killing off nature?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the three things that Takers do that nothing else in nature does?

2. How does Ishmael characterize the work of competing for food in Taker culture?

3. What are the three tricks Ishmael says the gods played on the Takers?

4. What reading does Ishmael give the Bible story of Cain and Abel?

5. What argument does the narrator offer for why the Takers’ culture is superior to the Leavers’?

6. How does Ishmael characterize the debate among the gods about an equitable way to take care of the animals?

7. Where has Ishmael gone when the narrator shows up again at the office building, and how does the narrator reconnect with him?

8. How does Ishmael say the Takers are fulfilling the story in which creation came to an end with them?

9. What objection does Ishmael make to the narrator’s questions at the beginning of Chapter 11?

10. What major change has taken place in the dialogue in Chapter 9, and what has brought this change about?

(see the answer keys)

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