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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 are Tagomi and Childan similar?
(a) They are seeking social equality.
(b) They are concerned with outward appearances.
(c) They are feared by their peers.
(d) They are involved in secret missions.

2. What does McCarthy tell Frank he has a plan to get for their business?
(a) Materials from an old friend.
(b) Approval from the Japanese Ministry.
(c) Financing from their former boss.
(d) Shop space from an uncle.

3. As Chapter 2 opens, what is Tagomi consulting the I Ching about?
(a) His job security.
(b) His upcoming visitor.
(c) His romantic future.
(d) His physical health.

4. What upsets Tagomi causing him to leave the special session of the Foreign Office?
(a) The evil in the world.
(b) A diagnosis he earlier received.
(c) Appetizers he was served.
(d) Loss of German supremacy.

5. What does Frank's memory of the landlord Omuro being beheaded by the Japanese Mission because of profiteering off ex-servicemen say about the Japanese?
(a) They are cruel to Americans.
(b) They are loyal to their religion.
(c) They respect the law.
(d) They desire wealth.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter 6, what does The Oracle predict that further distresses Tagomi?

2. What does Frank's question to the I Ching about Juliana suggest?

3. According to Wyndam-Matson, how does bringing up the past tend to make people feel?

4. What does Rita, Wyndam-Matson's girlfriend, suggest that he should do to handle the problem which he learned about from Calvin?

5. What does Juliana suggest to Joe is the reason for his overall bitter attitude?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do we learn about the German impact on television production and programming in Chapter 6? Of what significance is this to the storyline?

2. At the close of Chapter 6, we find Frank and McCarthy excited about starting their jewelry business. Despite this, Frank has some real concerns. Why? Are they legitimate?

3. What does the reader learn about the fate of the Slavs and Africans? In what way is Dick continuing to keep his "fiction" tied to reality? What comment might he be making about some of the realities of true USA history?

4. What appears to be the source of Juliana's depression at the start of Chapter 3? Why might this be considered to be ironic?

5. What is the source of the conflict Frank faces over his reading of the I Ching? How does he finally interpret this message? What does he decide as a result?

6. In Chapter 3, what suggestion is the author making by putting Hitler in a sanitarium and then noting that the present world in this novel is the product of his mind? What similarities are seen in the thoughts of Juliana and Baynes to support this view?

7. The voice of the radio quotes from The Bible, "What profit it a man if he gain the whole world but in this enterprise lose his soul?" How does this apply to what we have witnessed of this world in Chapter 1?

8. While consulting the I Ching, Frank thinks of how "his life was bound up with all other lives and particles in the universe." What does this mean? How might it be applied to Chapter 1 and serve as foreshadowing for the rest of the novel?

9. How is the mystery client that comes to place an expensive order with Childan described? What appears to be his real purpose? Who can you assume this client to be, and why is he doing this?

10. Childan says of the Kasouras, "these new young people, of the rising generation, who did not remember the days before the war or even the war itself, - they were the hope of the world." What is meant by this? How do the Kasouras appear to prove him right?

(see the answer keys)

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