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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. The phrase “you hear footsteps like a herd of baby elephants on the landing” (312) offers an example of which of the following?

2. To which of the following does Anwar compare the Gnome?

3. For which of the following does Dorothy note having worked?

4. From which of the following does Anwar receive an unexpected phone call?

5. In the novel, the term “bollock” carries which of the following meanings?

Short Essay Questions

1. What reason does Dorothy give for avoiding a weekday assignation with Liz (272)?

2. To what does MacDonald note his former associate compared ATHENA?

3. What reasons does MacDonald give for disinterest in creating artificial consciousness?

4. What reasons does Liz cite for consultants seeking to reduce the presence of police officers in the field?

5. What factors are noted in the decline of higher education prior to the novel?

6. What reasons does Kemal give for labeling MacDonald a coward?

7. What reasons does Anwar note for pitying his fellow inmates in Saughton (186)?

8. How does MacDonald explain “steering people” (308)?

9. What reasons does the Toymaker note for determining to research steak consumption in Scotland?

10. What reasons does Anwar give for calling Datka?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the novel, higher education comes under censure. What is to be made of the pattern? How is it to be understood? What in the novel suggests as much, and how?

Essay Topic 2

What is to be made of the parallels in phrasing between Liz and the Toymaker in the ninth and tenth chapter (both remark that “Once is happenstance, but twice is enemy action” and that “Someone’s going to bleed for this. And it’s not going to be you”)? How does that significance emerge?

Essay Topic 3

Liz remarks on “what the folks writing the exams laughably call the real world” (14). What cause does she have to describe the phrasing as laughable? How does it justify the description?

(see the answer keys)

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