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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. What unusual item does Ford try to buy with his credit card after landing on Earth?

2. What creates the signal that Ford homes in on to arrive at the planet?

3. When Ford, Arthur, Tricia, Trillian, and Random all meet at the club, who is holding a gun?

4. What does the new Guide test first, with Random?

5. How many days are there in a year on Lamuella?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Ford get the new Guide out of the Guide offices?

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

3. Why is Ford worried about the new Guide?

4. Describe how the Sandwich Maker makes a sandwich.

5. What comes out of the trees toward Random, as she goes through the woods?

6. How does the interview between Tricia and Random go?

7. How does Ford react when he first sees a pikka bird?

8. How does Arthur use Ford's towel to attract a Perfectly Normal Beast?

9. What does Tricia learn when she calls her television station from the editing booth?

10. Why is Random fascinated by Arthur's watch?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the new Guide, its abilities, and its implications in the novel.

1) Why is Ford so concerned about the new Guide and its capabilities?

2) What is the new Guide? How does it operate, and why is it dangerous technology? Why does the Hitchhiker's Guide office want to develop this technology?

3) How is the Guide different from the normal characters that populate the universe? How is it different from objects, machines, and robots? Is it a being, a machine, or something else?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the ability to discover and perceive truth in the novel.

1) How do the limitations of knowledge and perception affect the ability to discover truth in the novel? How does it affect Tricia's ability to share her knowledge of the existence of aliens?

2) How is Ford's desire to find out the truth behind the new Guide inhibited by the limits of knowledge and perception?

3) Why are characters in the novel unwilling to try to discover truth? Why do scientists find truth muddled and confusing? Why do characters like the Lamuellans not want to delve into mysteries like the Perfectly Normal Beasts?

Essay Topic 3

Mostly Harmless is a humorous novel. Discuss the author's humor and how he uses humor in the novel.

1) What kinds of humor does the author use? How are the characters, situations, and ideas in the novel humorous?

2) How does the ending, and the destruction of Earth, fit in with the humorous nature of the novel?

3) What kinds of liberties does humor allow the author to take? How does humor allow the author to create wildly improbable situations and events?

(see the answer keys)

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