View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What job is Tricia hoping to get in New York?

2. What is in Arthur's motel room for protection against boghogs?

3. What design is on Ford's towel?

4. What is the name of the company that has bought the Guide?

5. What causes the prophet to begin speaking in tongues?

Short Essay Questions

1. What animal do the armed men in the editor's office remind Ford of?

2. What does Eric want Tricia to do when she gets home?

3. What does Ford realize is odd about the thirteenth floor of the Guide building?

4. What prevents Tricia from going though with her plans for the evening on the day she returns from New York?

5. What is Ford surprised to find while he's doing what he came to the virtual reality for?

6. Why is Arthur the sole survivor of the space ship crash?

7. What does Ford say to the armed men who are in the editor's office?

8. Describe the herring sandwich experiment.

9. How does the security robot act after Ford alters it?

10. What problem do the aliens have that they want Tricia's help with?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Random's character.

1) How is Random incomplete as a person? Why does she lack a sense of belonging and identity? How does this affect her personality?

2) What is the meaning of Random's name? What role does randomness and chance play in her existence?

3) Why does Random react the way she does to her mother, her father, the Guide, Tricia, and Earth? Why does she need to open the package from Ford? Why does she need to take apart Arthur's watch?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss social satire in the novel.

1) How does the Guide and its offices serve as social satire? How does it represent large corporations in the real world? How does the story of the failed air control system for offices compare to this satire, as a social satire of technology?

2) How do the Vogons function as social satire? What types of people and organizations do they satire? How is bureaucracy depicted?

3) What other elements of social satire are present in the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the limitations of knowledge in the novel.

1) How does identity and perspective limit knowledge in the novel?

2) How do the limitations of knowledge doom the characters to being unsuccessful in stopping the new Guide from achieving its goal?

3) In what ways are limitations of knowledge good and bad in the novel?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 839 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample