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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 does Ishmael propose, in Chapter 7, to learn how they can find out for themselves how to live?
(a) By consulting books
(b) By having mystical experiences
(c) By talking to prophets
(d) By looking at what is actually there

2. What emotion does the narrator say he sees in Ishmael’s eyes, as he realizes that this change has been made in Chapter 9?
(a) Demonic joy
(b) Wary speculation
(c) Sadness
(d) Distrust

3. What does the narrator tell Ishmael he wants to know in Chapter 11?
(a) Why he decided to teach
(b) Where the Sokolows have been
(c) Where Ishmael’s other students are
(d) The Leavers’ story

4. What does the narrator say he feels when he takes a few days off from his discussion with Ishmael in Chapter 8?
(a) Optimism
(b) Irritation
(c) Depression
(d) Hope

5. According to Ishmael, which is NOT a ‘trick’ the gods played on the Takers?
(a) Failing to create man after a special fashion unique in nature
(b) Neglecting to write down their laws for the benefit of men
(c) Not exempting man from the laws that govern populations of animals and plants.
(d) Refusing to put the world in the center of the solar system and universe

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What knowledge do the gods discover that allows them to rule the world without being criminals or negligent?

3. When the narrator cannot answer Ishmael’s question, ‘how did man become man?’, how does Ishmael say they will address the question?

4. What new name for the Leavers do Ishmael and the narrator arrive at in their discussion in Chapter 12?

5. For whose benefit does Ishmael say the Takers accumulate and preserve knowledge?

Short Essay Questions

1. What keeps the narrator from returning to the office building for a few days?

2. What surprising behavior does Ishmael describe for the narrator in an imaginary hospitable city?

3. The narrator says that he wants to know the Leavers’ story so he can stop the destruction of the Takers’ story. Why does Ishmael say this is insufficient?

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

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

6. What does Ishmael say is the benefit of what he calls the peace-keeping law?

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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