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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. What has caused Africa to become a wasteland?
(a) Nazi experimentation on humans.
(b) American bombing.
(c) Italian colonization.
(d) Asian exploitation of resources.

2. What does Juliana feel the Germans have made little advancement in despite having gone to Mars?
(a) Telephone.
(b) Mail.
(c) Radio.
(d) Television.

3. How is the city of San Francisco described?
(a) As rebuilding from a major earthquake.
(b) As making a strong economic comeback.
(c) As being left in ruins from the war.
(d) As becoming a world cultural center.

4. What does the order in which languages are used in making airline announcements symbolize?
(a) Class structure.
(b) Educational priorities.
(c) Multicultural diversity.
(d) Geographic patterns.

5. What do phrases like "the fussy, brisk voice," "barely polite," and "deliberately mispronounced his name" initially tell us about Tagomi's character?
(a) He is overworked.
(b) He is insecure.
(c) He is uneducated.
(d) He is arrogant.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Mrs. Kasoura seem to Childan?

2. In Chapter 4, what does McCarthy encourage Frank to do?

3. At the start of Chapter 6, Juliana attributes the healthier appearance of the Germans as depicted in a magazine article as proof of _____________.

4. Joe's comments about the war and the Germans show that he is opposed to ___________.

5. Who does Rita note her parents said would have won WW II if he had lived?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. 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?

3. Despite initiating a relationship with Joe, whom she finds attractive, Juliana begins to feel uncomfortable around him. Why? What might this be foreshadowing?

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. 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?

6. 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?

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

8. What is Childan's plan when he makes an appointment with his supplier, Ray Calvin? What does this further reveal about his character? Do you feel this is a realistic reaction?

9. While at a special session about the possible candidates for the new German Chancellor, Tagomi becomes ill and leaves. What factors cause him to take the chance of being shamed by his abrupt departure?

10. One aspect of science fiction is that there is an element of the real world in it. What similarities can be seen in World War II and its aftermath as related in the High Castle and the history as we know it?

(see the answer keys)

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