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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. To which of the following does Rushdie compare himself?
(a) Martin Amis.
(b) Adam Bellow.
(c) Saul Bellow.
(d) John Updike.

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

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

4. Which of Rushdie’s novels does he note Philip Roth read?
(a) The Antagonist.
(b) Grimus.
(c) The Golden House.
(d) Madame Rama.

5. At which of the following English schools did Rushdie board?
(a) Eton College.
(b) Rugby School.
(c) Oakham School.
(d) Wycliffe School.

6. In which of the following is Coalhouse Walker a character?
(a) Ragtime.
(b) Loon Lake.
(c) Andrew’s Brain.
(d) World’s Fair.

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

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

9. Which of the following fantasy authors does Rushdie reference?
(a) McKillip.
(b) Hobb.
(c) Le Guin.
(d) Hughes.

10. Which of the following is reported as saying “a novel is a long prose narrative that has something wrong with it” (35)?
(a) Randall Jarrell.
(b) André Malraux.
(c) Stephen King.
(d) Brandon Sanderson.

11. Which of the following novels does Rushdie reference?
(a) Innocents Abroad.
(b) Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.
(c) Huckleberry Finn.
(d) Pudd’nhead Wilson.

12. Which of the following does Rushdie note having written for his son?
(a) Haroun and the Sea of Stories.
(b) The Satanic Verses.
(c) Grimus.
(d) The Ground Beneath Her Feet.

13. What does Rushdie note was her preferred bookseller in Cambridge?
(a) Bowes & Bowes.
(b) Bird & Baby.
(c) Barnes & Noble.
(d) Brother & Sister.

14. Which of the following is attributed to Edward Bond?
(a) Cursed.
(b) Damned.
(c) Saved.
(d) Blessed.

15. How many days pass for Shahryar and Shah Zaman between their revenge for cuckoldry and their marriages to Scheherazade and Dunyazad?
(a) 1,189.
(b) 907.
(c) 1,001.
(d) 1,095.

Short Answer Questions

1. To which of the following is the anthology dedicated?

2. Which of the following is attributed to Edward Bond?

3. Which of the following authored The Enigma of Arrival?

4. In what year does Rushdie report having initially written the text of “Cervantes and Shakespeare”?

5. Whose translation of Don Quixote does Rushdie favor?

(see the answer keys)

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