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

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the barman respond to the size of the tip Ford wants to leave the singer at the Bar & Grill?

2. Where does Random throw Arthur's watch?

3. What does the new Guide transform into when it opens itself?

4. Where was Random born?

5. What does Tricia make a model of on the alien computer system on Rupert?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Random find at the crash site?

2. How was Ford saved the second time he jumped out the window of the Guide building?

3. What is odd about the Perfectly Normal Beast?

4. What worries Ford about what's happened during his visit to the Guide?

5. What does the owner of the spaceship that Ford tries to buy tell him?

6. Why is Ford worried about the new Guide?

7. How does the new Guide arrange a spaceship to come?

8. What do Ford and Arthur talk about as they ride the Perfectly Normal Beast away?

9. What sort of review does Ford give the Bar & Grill?

10. What does the new Guide demonstrate with a laser and the rain?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

Arthur and Ford are literary foils. Compare their characters and roles in the novel.

1) How do Ford and Arthur react differently to change and risk? How do they understand and respond to the universe differently?

2) What do Ford and Arthur value? How are their points of view different, and how does this relate to their identity? How does it affect their actions and choices?

3) Why does the author use two characters who are opposites? How does it affect the story and the reader?

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)

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