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 does Gail tell Tricia?

2. What does the second prayer the prophet gives Arthur ask to protect him from?

3. What does the Resettlement Advice Center worker do with the filing cabinet to get files out of it?

4. What does King Antwelm assume?

5. What does Ford decide to do, after discovering the editor's office full of armed men?

Short Essay Questions

1. What concerns Gail about her interview with Tricia?

2. What does the Hitch Hiker's Guide do to areas where it sets up its offices?

3. Why are officials unconcerned about Fenchurch's disappearance?

4. Who comes to find out what Ford is doing in the virtual reality?

5. How does Tricia hope to get an audition for the job she wants?

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

7. What does the old lady give to Arthur along with her advice?

8. Describe the herring sandwich experiment.

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

10. What metaphor does Tricia think of, for trying to live life according to a plan?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss communication in the novel.

1) What types of failures of communication appear in the novel? How do Ford and Arthur fail to communicate with each other?

2) How do Arthur and Random fail to communicate with each other? Why does Random have such difficulty communicating?

3) What is the relationship between differing perspectives and failed communication in the novel?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the role of fate and free will in the novel.

1) Do the characters in the novel have free will? Do their circumstances and personalities force them into specific roles and choices?

2) Does the existence of the new Guide eliminate free will?

3) How does the existence of multiple dimensions, representing different potential realities, relate to fate and free will? If all possibilities exist, is there any real choice or free will?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss language in the novel and the author's use of language.

1) How does the author play with language? How does the author create humor by manipulating language?

2) How does the author use irony in the novel? What other types of figurative language does the author use?

3) How does the author use naming and terminology in the book? What is the significance of the names of planets, objects, scientific ideas, and characters?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 813 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample