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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is it that the narrator appreciates about Isobel, as she tends his wounds?
(a) Her smell.
(b) Her nose.
(c) Her hair.
(d) Her soft voice.

2. Why does Ari say that the idea of aliens can only be enjoyed as fiction?
(a) Because he does not think it is possible for there to be life elsewhere.
(b) Because the reality would push human beings out of the center of their own worldview.
(c) Because the crisis of science being wrong would destroy human knowledge.
(d) Because there would be panic if people thought it was possible.

3. Where does the narrator get a teaching job?
(a) Stanford.
(b) Harvard.
(c) Yale.
(d) Chicago.

4. How does the narrator characterize his feelings before making love with Isobel?
(a) Pleasurable fear.
(b) Satisfying uncertainty.
(c) Terrifying desire.
(d) Unbearable pleasure.

5. What does the narrator say love allows humans to do?
(a) Defy the messiness of life.
(b) Defy death.
(c) Live forever.
(d) Live in a single moment.

6. What is the title of Isobel’s novel?
(a) Wider Than the Sky.
(b) Deeper Than the Ocean.
(c) Longer Than Time.
(d) Darker Than the Night.

7. What injury does the narrator suffer after falling from the roof with Gulliver?
(a) He breaks his legs.
(b) He punctures a lung.
(c) He breaks his arm.
(d) He only suffers cuts and bruises.

8. What is it that proves the narrator’s humanity to him?
(a) A moment of overwhelming emotion.
(b) A teardrop.
(c) A laugh.
(d) A sob.

9. How does the narrator say Gulliver can accept him easiest?
(a) As a father.
(b) As a mathematician.
(c) As a devoted husband.
(d) As an alien.

10. What is the top secret thing Ari mentions to the narrator?
(a) The true cause of Daniel Russell’s death.
(b) The narrator’s true origins.
(c) Andrew Martin’s affair with Maggie.
(d) Andrew Martin’s proof of the Riemann Hypothesis.

11. What reason does the narrator provide for why humans love?
(a) Because they are minor deities.
(b) Because they are thwarted.
(c) Because they are mortal.
(d) Because they are overflowing.

12. How does the narrator characterize sex with Isobel?
(a) Electro-chemical magnetism.
(b) Physical incarnation of mathematical laws.
(c) Bio-emotional phosphorescence.
(d) Physical gratification devoid of any abstraction.

13. What is life like for the narrator after he loses his gifts?
(a) Confusing.
(b) Fulfilling.
(c) Challenging.
(d) Monotonous.

14. How does the narrator convince Gulliver to trust him and to kill the replacement?
(a) He invokes the brown leaf he turned green.
(b) He tells him to think of Dordogne.
(c) He gets Newton to show Gulliver he trusts him.
(d) He tells him he knows who sent the replacement.

15. What prevents the narrator from telling Ari about his origins?
(a) A violet headache.
(b) Ari’s wife shows up.
(c) Maggie phones him.
(d) Gulliver interrupts.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does the narrator put his hand on the stove?

2. What does the narrator take comfort in, after Gulliver beats him?

3. What does the narrator say when Isobel describes the early days of her courtship with Andrew Martin?

4. How does the narrator try to get Gulliver to kill himself?

5. How does the narrator characterize human love?

(see the answer keys)

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