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

2. What new name for the Takers do Ishmael and the narrator arrive at in their discussion in Chapter 12?
(a) Those who live in the gods’ hands
(b) Those who invent themselves
(c) Those who know good and evil
(d) Those who follow the old ways

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

4. How does the narrator characterize Art Owens?
(a) A sly, backhanded snake
(b) A weary gentleman
(c) An energetic cannonball of a man
(d) A hard-eyed black man

5. What explanation does the narrator ultimately give for why he wants to know a specific question in Chapter 11?
(a) He wants to publish Ishmael’s teachings
(b) He wants to stop the destruction of the world
(c) He admits that he wants to discredit Ishmael by seeing the other side of his teachings
(d) He wants to stop thinking about what Ishmael has told him

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the law Ishmael believes the narartor is looking for in Chapter 8 prevent?

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

3. What does Ishmael say is ironic about the story the Takers adopted about two thousand years ago?

4. Why does the narrator have a hard time agreeing to Art Owens’ demands?

5. What subsequent interruption kept the narrator from returning for another few days in Chapter 10?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What are the gods wary of, in letting Adam have the knowledge of good and evil?

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

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

6. What does the narrator say is the consequence of the Takers’ culture?

7. How do Ishmael and the narrator say that culture changed when the agricultural revolution took place?

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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