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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which of Hans Christian Andersen’s stories does Rushdie regard as his best?
(a) “The Snow Queen.”
(b) “The Tinder Box.”
(c) “The Little Mermaid.”
(d) “The Shadow.”

2. Which of the following does Rushdie cite against sloth?
(a) Catullus.
(b) Virgil.
(c) Juvenal.
(d) Ovid.

3. Which of the following does Rushdie call “The first great writer I knew” (158)?
(a) Mir Taqi Mir.
(b) Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
(c) Ahmad Faraz.
(d) Mirza Ghalib.

4. Whom does Rushdie remark destroyed Philip Larkin’s diaries?
(a) Betty Mackereth.
(b) Anne Hathaway.
(c) Monica Jones.
(d) Ivor Brown.

5. Which of the following resources does Rushdie note Sondheim as using?
(a) Elements of Style.
(b) Songwriting for Dummies.
(c) Robert’s Rules of Order.
(d) Roget’s Thesaurus.

6. On whom does Rushdie note Harper Lee’s Dill is based?
(a) Truman Capote.
(b) Tennessee Williams.
(c) Peter Falk.
(d) Perry Edward Smith.

7. Which of the following does Rushdie note is assumed to be objectionable by those who have not read or viewed it?
(a) Midnight Cowboy.
(b) Last Tango in Paris.
(c) Showgirls.
(d) The Birdcage.

8. Which of the following does Rushdie observe received a Nobel Prize?
(a) Barack Obama.
(b) Seamus Heaney.
(c) Bob Dylan.
(d) Liu Xiaobo.

9. With what did China charge Ai Weiwei?
(a) Jaywalking.
(b) Sedition.
(c) Tax crimes.
(d) Trafficking.

10. With which of the following does “Introduction to The Paris Review Interviews, Vol. IV” begin?
(a) “What, art thou mad? Art thou mad?”
(b) “Before there were books, there were stories.”
(c) “India, in the mid-sixteenth century.”
(d) “I once asked a maker of fine gold jewelry why she only worked in such an expensive material.”

11. What does Rushdie describe as the earliest message from the gods (246)?
(a) “Love thy neighbor.”
(b) “Know that I am the Lord thy god.”
(c) “Love me, and despair.”
(d) “Know your place.”

12. How does Rushdie gloss the term “Trümmerliteratur”?
(a) “Rubble literature.”
(b) “Drummer literature.”
(c) “Truthful literature.”
(d) “Stomach literature.”

13. In what year does Rushdie note having worked on the first draft of Shame?
(a) 1981.
(b) 1983.
(c) 1982.
(d) 1984.

14. Rushdie notes that Osama bin Laden died just after which of the following observances?
(a) Pentecost.
(b) Walpurgisnacht.
(c) Beltane.
(d) Ramadan.

15. Which essay does Rushdie note was removed from the Delhi University curriculum?
(a) “Three Hundred Ramayanas.”
(b) “The Half-Woman God.”
(c) “The Malorian Kay as Fredalian Figure.”
(d) “The Eureka Phenomenon.”

Short Answer Questions

1. Who was *president* of PEN America in 2004?

2. What writer does Rushdie note denies desire to understand other writers’ processes?

3. Which of the following was accused of being “a woman hungry of sex” (230)?

4. In the context of discussing Muhammad Ali, the word “hagiography” most nearly means which of the following?

5. Which of the following does Rushdie note transferred control of Bombay to England?

(see the answer keys)

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