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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Vonnegut tell his sons about massacres?
(a) That they are a necessary part of human history.
(b) To run away from them if at all possible.
(c) Not to be involved in them, or take glee from them.
(d) That they are excusable if done for a good reason.

2. How long does Billy stay locked in a railroad boxcar before it starts moving?
(a) Two days
(b) Ten hours
(c) One day
(d) Five days

3. What did the German soldiers find on Billy when they searched him?
(a) A two-inch pencil stub
(b) His rifle and bayonet
(c) The letter from his mother
(d) A picture of his girlfriend

4. What question does Billy ask the Tralfamadorans?
(a) Where they are and how they got there.
(b) How his life will end.
(c) Where his mother is.
(d) What life on Trafalmadore is like.

5. How many days does Billy travel in the railroad cars before arriving at the camp?
(a) Twelve days
(b) Six days
(c) Five days
(d) Ten days

6. How do the Tralfamadorans make Billy climb the ladder?
(a) They poke him with long sticks.
(b) They threaten him with death.
(c) They ask him politely.
(d) They shoot a ray at him.

7. Why does Vonnegut stop at the Hudson River on the way to see his friend Bernard O'Hare?
(a) It reminds him of the Danube River.
(b) He wants to see if he can catch a trout.
(c) They want to go swimming in the water.
(d) His daughter had never seen a river before.

8. How does Billy's son Robert straighten out his life?
(a) He gets a job delivering phone books.
(b) He stops drinking and becomes sober.
(c) He becomes a Green Beret in Vietnam.
(d) He settles down and gets married.

9. What does the hobo in Billy's railroad boxcar tell him?
(a) The secrets of Trafalmadore.
(b) That he knows him from somewhere.
(c) That he has been in worse situations than this.
(d) That he's been hungry for weeks.

10. What play do the British officers perform for the Americans?
(a) Sleeping Beauty
(b) Cinderella
(c) Hamlet
(d) The Trojan War

11. Where does Billy find himself the morning after he becomes drunk at the party?
(a) On Tralfamadore
(b) In a prisoner of war camp
(c) In the backseat of his car
(d) On the front lawn of the house

12. Why do the Germans laugh at Billy's coat?
(a) It is much too small for him
(b) It is made out of blue silk
(c) He is wearing it backwards
(d) It has lace trim on the cuffs

13. What is unusual about the war movie Billy watches?
(a) The characters in the movie start talking to Billy.
(b) It stars Roland Weary as the hero of the story.
(c) It plays backwards and then forwards again.
(d) It is about Billy's own experiences in the war.

14. What surprised the British officers most about the American prisoners?
(a) How ill-dressed they were
(b) How tired they looked
(c) How young they were
(d) How nice they were

15. Why did the German soldiers throw Billy into a shrubbery?
(a) They wanted to play hide and seek with him.
(b) So they could take a picture of his
(c) They wanted him to help with the gardening.
(d) They were angry at him for smiling so much.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do humans look like to the Tralfamadorans?

2. What was Edgar Derby's job before he joined the army?

3. Where does Billy time travel to while in the showers?

4. What does Billy do when he gets drunk at the party in 1961?

5. What was it about the Grand Canyon that scared Billy?

(see the answer keys)

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