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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How do the Tralfamadorans view time?
(a) It's a nuisance; time goes too slowly.
(b) As permanent fixtures, like the Rocky Mountains.
(c) Like a river that flows in one direction only.
(d) As a gift that should be treasured like gold.

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

3. What name does Roland Weary give to the group of lost soldiers?
(a) The Lost Souls
(b) The Band of Brothers
(c) The Three Musketeers
(d) The Last Warriors

4. What does Barbara think is wrong with Billy when she finds him in his cold house?
(a) She thinks he is getting senile.
(b) She thinks he got pneumonia.
(c) She thinks he is distracted by grief.
(d) She thinks he is too proud to ask for money.

5. How does Roland Weary die?
(a) By shooting himself in the head
(b) From gangrene in his feet
(c) Killed by the other prisoners
(d) Killed by a German guard

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Vonnegut tell his sons about massacres?

2. What did Vonnegut study in college?

3. Who does Roland Weary blame for his death?

4. When was Billy kidnapped by the Tralfamadorans?

5. What interrupts Billy's attempt at napping?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Billy keep a framed copy of the Serenity Prayer in his office?

2. What does Billy extrapolate happening after the end of the war movie he is watching on the night before his daughter's wedding?

3. What parts of Ilium remind Billy of the ruined towns in World War II?

4. What does it mean that Billy Pilgrim is "unstuck in time?"

5. Why does Vonnegut say this book will be "jumbled and jangled?"

6. Why does Kurt Vonnegut use real information from his life in this book?

7. What did Kurt Vonnegut learn about the bombing of Dresden when he wrote to the Air Force for details?

8. Where does Billy wake up after falling asleep with the other prisoners in the stone cottage?

9. Describe the structure of a Tralfamadoran novel.

10. What is unusual about the way Tralfamadorans view time?

(see the answer keys)

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