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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. Why are the American prisoners given showers?
(a) To help kill the lice and germs on their bodies
(b) Because the Germans cannot stand their smell
(c) To warm them up after the cold railroad ride
(d) In order to humiliate the American Army

2. What author does Eliot Rosewater tell Billy about?
(a) Kilgore Trout
(b) Philip K. Dick
(c) Kurt Vonnegut
(d) L. Ron Hubbard

3. What does Billy do the night before his daughter's wedding?
(a) He waits for the aliens to kidnap him.
(b) He takes a nap while watching televsision.
(c) He calls an old girlfriend on the phone.
(d) He talks to his old friend Bernard O'Hare.

4. Why do the Germans take pictures of Roland and Billy?
(a) For propaganda purposes
(b) For official records
(c) They are making postcards
(d) They like the Americans

5. What play do the English prisoners put on to welcome the Americans?
(a) Cinderella
(b) Hamlet
(c) Macbeth
(d) The Glass Menagerie

Short Answer Questions

1. Why do the Germans laugh at Billy's coat?

2. What does the hobo in Billy's railroad boxcar tell him?

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

4. What do humans look like to the Tralfamadorans?

5. What does Vonnegut tell his sons about massacres?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is it unusual for Kurt Vonnegut to appear in this book as a character?

2. Describe the structure of a Tralfamadoran novel.

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

4. When does Billy Pilgrim first experience being unstuck in time?

5. According to the aliens in Kilgore Trout's book, what is the flaw in the story of Christ?

6. How does Billy describe the Tralfamadorans?

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

8. What does the story of Sodom and Gomorrah have to do with Vonnegut's book about Dresden?

9. Why do the Tralfamadorans not believe in free will?

10. Why is Billy afraid to drop down from the railroad car?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 608 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample