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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How many students does Andrew Martin have, when the narrator walks into his classroom?
(a) 88.
(b) 34.
(c) 102.
(d) 220.

2. Why does the narrator’s replacement say he did not make his presence known when he broke into the house a few nights before?
(a) He was not ready to have murder on his conscience.
(b) He did not want to kill another Vonnadorian.
(c) He was not confident of his gifts.
(d) He was afraid of the dog.

3. Where does the narrator say that love stems from?
(a) The depths of grief.
(b) The heat of desire.
(c) The possibility of pain.
(d) The inevitability of death.

4. 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 gets Newton to show Gulliver he trusts him.
(c) He tells him he knows who sent the replacement.
(d) He tells him to think of Dordogne.

5. What does the narrator say is as universal as oxygen?
(a) Grief.
(b) Loneliness.
(c) Imagination.
(d) Love.

6. What is the consequence for the narrator, of bringing Gulliver back to life?
(a) Exhaustion.
(b) Great pain.
(c) A violent headache.
(d) Delusional visions.

7. What is the narrator’s suggestion to Isobel, regarding Gulliver?
(a) Send him to boarding school.
(b) Discipline him.
(c) Punish him.
(d) Accept him.

8. What does the narrator say happens when everything becomes alien?
(a) Reason emerges.
(b) The breakdown begins.
(c) It is time to go.
(d) The alien becomes familiar.

9. How does Ari characterize the duration of human history?
(a) The moment of a sneeze.
(b) The length of a fart.
(c) The flush of a toilet.
(d) The blink of an eye.

10. Where does the narrator go at the end of the novel?
(a) Home to California.
(b) Home to Vonnadoria.
(c) Home to Isobel and Gulliver’s house.
(d) Home to Boston.

11. What does Gulliver say it is like to be Andrew Martin’s son?
(a) A black eye.
(b) Shoes too small.
(c) Being broke.
(d) Being powerless.

12. 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.

13. How does the narrator say he became human?
(a) By marrying reason to emotion.
(b) By showing discipline.
(c) By showing defiance.
(d) By betraying reason.

14. How does the narrator characterize the pleasure he feels while making love with Maggie?
(a) Spiritual.
(b) Anatomical.
(c) Incandescent.
(d) Phosphorescent.

15. What is Ari’s response to the thing the narrator tells him?
(a) He says that he believes him.
(b) He says that he will have other experiences.
(c) He says that he wants to go there with him.
(d) He says that he is fucked, then.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator’s virus change Gulliver’s bullies’ names to on Facebook?

2. How long does Isobel say it has been, since she and her husband talked as openly as they talk after Hamlet?

3. What is the narrator about to tell Isobel when he sees Zӧe outside the restaurant?

4. What is it that proves the narrator’s humanity to him?

5. What does the narrator say is the biggest act of bravery or madness a human being can commit?

(see the answer keys)

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