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

2. Where does the narrator reunite with Ishmael in Chapter 10?
(a) At another office building
(b) At a motel
(c) At a carnival
(d) In the woods

3. Why does the narrator say he feels a particular feeling after taking a few days off from his discussion with the narrator in Chapter 8?
(a) Because he is seeing clearly for the first time in his life
(b) Because he expects to be abandoned once he has finished Ishmael’s teachings
(c) Because he is confident that he can use his new knowledge to change things
(d) Because he does not believe that he can change anything himself

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

5. What is the narrator’s first strategy for reconnecting to Ishmael in Chapter 10?
(a) Finding Mrs. Sokolow
(b) Posting an ad
(c) Apologizing to him
(d) Driving around looking

Short Answer Questions

1. What keeps the narrator from returning to Ishmael the next day, after discussing Adam and Eve?

2. How does Ishmael propose, in Chapter 7, to learn how they can find out for themselves how to live?

3. What does the narrator say he feels when he takes a few days off from his discussion with Ishmael in Chapter 8?

4. What does the narrator find when he returns to the office building in Chapter 10 after several days away from Ishmael?

5. In Chapter 11, how does Ishmael define culture?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Ishmael say the Takers explain their divergence from the peace-keeping law that has kept nature harmonious for three million years?

3. How does Ishmael characterize the experiment that is modern civilization?

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

5. How does Ishmael says man becomes man?

6. What does the narrator say is his chief objection to the Leavers’ lifestyle?

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

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

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

10. Describe the narrator’s negotiations with Art Owens.

(see the answer keys)

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