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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which of the following comments that “The cruelest thing anyone can do with Portnoy’s Complaint is read it twice” (88)?
(a) Irving Howe.
(b) Irving Berlin.
(c) John Howe.
(d) John Berlin.

2. How large an advance did Rushdie receive for his first published novel?
(a) £900.
(b) £300.
(c) £500.
(d) £700.

3. As which of the following does Rushdie define “amrita”?
(a) Nectar of immortality.
(b) Elixir of delight.
(c) Draught of somnolence.
(d) Tincture of eternity.

4. With which of the following does the first essay in the section, “Wonder Tales,” begin?
(a) “Before there were books, there were stories.”
(b) “The last time I heard from Philip Roth was in October 2017.”
(c) “I once asked a maker of fine gold jewelry why she only worked in such an expensive material.”
(d) “What, art thou mad? Art thou mad?”

5. Which of the following does Rushdie report being among his father’s library?
(a) The Tribe that Lost Its Head.
(b) The Other Wind.
(c) Pride and Prejudice.
(d) The Last Dark.

6. With which of the following does the first essay in Part Two begin?
(a) “I once asked a maker of fine gold jewelry why she only worked in such an expensive material.”
(b) “India, in the mid-sixteenth century.”
(c) “What, art thou mad? Art thou mad?”
(d) “The last time I heard from Philip Roth was in October 2017.”

7. In which of the following does Rushdie note the Ramayana is adapted?
(a) Amar Chitra Katha.
(b) Pataal Lok.
(c) Combat of Shadows.
(d) Hamzanama.

8. Which of the following is posited to have written Don Quixote?
(a) Walter Raleigh.
(b) Roger Ascham.
(c) Isaac Newton.
(d) Francis Bacon.

9. For what virtue does Rushdie commend Harold Pinter?
(a) Chastity.
(b) Honesty.
(c) Temperance.
(d) Courtesy.

10. Of which of the following was Shah Zaman ruler?
(a) Ethiopia.
(b) Kashgar.
(c) Abyssinia.
(d) Samarkand.

11. In what year does Rushdie note having first read Slaughterhouse-Five?
(a) 1973.
(b) 1971.
(c) 1972.
(d) 1974.

12. As which of the following does Rushdie explain Heraclitus’s idea of daimon?
(a) Way of being in the world.
(b) Overarching cultural story about the culture.
(c) Assertion of considered reason.
(d) Guiding principle that shapes one’s life.

13. In which London neighborhood did Rushdie live while working part-time in advertising?
(a) Camden Town.
(b) Belsize Park.
(c) Islington.
(d) Kentish Town.

14. To which of the following is the anthology dedicated?
(a) Mia.
(b) Nabeelah.
(c) Tahera.
(d) Seema.

15. Which of the following authored The Enigma of Arrival?
(a) Nuruddin Farah.
(b) Bharati Mukherjee.
(c) VS Naipaul.
(d) Salman Rushdie.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many deaths does Rushdie attribute to Shahryar and Shah Zaman before their marriages to Scheherazade and Dunyazad?

2. What literary agency do Rushdie and Roth share?

3. To which of the following does Rushdie compare Kurt Vonnegut?

4. Which of the following authors The Witch Must Die?

5. What meaning is ascribed to the name Scheherazade?

(see the answer keys)

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