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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does the narrator characterize the pattern Riemann discovered for the first hundred thousand or so prime numbers?
(a) Regular and scientific.
(b) Beautiful and clean.
(c) Random and bewildering.
(d) Chaotic and mystifying.

2. Where does Isobel Martin say Andrew Martin’s psychological problems came from?
(a) Lack of maternal love.
(b) Original sin.
(c) A childhood illness.
(d) A car accident.

3. How does Isobel Martin characterize Andrew Martin’s relationship with Daniel Russell?
(a) Distrust and suspicion.
(b) Mutual regard.
(c) Indifference.
(d) Deep hostility.

4. What does the narrator say everything is, on Earth?
(a) A test.
(b) A tragedy.
(c) A trial.
(d) A betrayal.

5. What does the narrator say this book is about?
(a) How to kill a Vonnadorian.
(b) How to become human.
(c) How to fall in love.
(d) How to travel through time and space.

6. What is it that impresses the narrator about Grigori Perelman?
(a) He did not publish his stunning mathematical work during his lifetime.
(b) He turns down a money prize for accomplishments in math.
(c) He donates all the money he wins from math prizes to the poor.
(d) He wins enormous amounts of money for solving mathematical problems.

7. What does the narrator look at, that gives him the feeling of not being troubled?
(a) A plant.
(b) A crowd of people at a distance.
(c) The parking lot.
(d) A hillside.

8. What is the narrator honest about with Daniel Russell?
(a) His origins.
(b) The existence of life on other planets.
(c) Andrew Martin’s proof.
(d) Andrew Martin’s marriage.

9. What does the narrator say human news is about?
(a) Mathematics.
(b) Humans.
(c) Astronomy.
(d) War.

10. What interrupts the discussion the narrator is having with Isobel about Andrew Martin’s relationship with his mother?
(a) The phone ringing.
(b) The postman knocking.
(c) Newton barking.
(d) Gulliver coming home.

11. What does the narrator attribute Newton’s newfound liveliness to?
(a) Peanut butter.
(b) Lots of sleep.
(c) Companionship.
(d) Long walks.

12. What does Isobel say about the narrator’s heart?
(a) It does not feel like it is beating.
(b) It is beating quick and shallow.
(c) It feels like it could explode.
(d) It is beating heavily.

13. Who is the poet who gives the narrator hope for humanity?
(a) Emily Dickinson.
(b) Ann Sexton.
(c) Rumi.
(d) Robinson Jeffers.

14. What music does the narrator play, when he feels lonely in the house?
(a) Holst’s The Planets.
(b) Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.
(c) Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.
(d) Bizet’s Carmen.

15. What does the narrator say about Andrew Martin, when he is being interrogated?
(a) That he is having an affair with his student.
(b) That he has just solved the Riemann Hypothesis.
(c) That he is above the law.
(d) That he is the smartest human on Earth.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where is Gulliver’s room in Andrew Martin’s house?

2. How does the narrator injure himself in the house?

3. What happened to cause Andrew Martin to stop liking his son?

4. What deos the narrator say is the chief purpose of magazines?

5. What does the narrator say is the one condition under which humans tolerate mad people?

(see the answer keys)

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