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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Where does the epigram come from at the end of the book?
(a) Einstein.
(b) Feynman.
(c) Talking Heads.
(d) Copernicus.

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

4. What does the narrator say he always needed, instead of emotions?
(a) Teamwork.
(b) Strict commands.
(c) Directives from superiors.
(d) Mathematical truth.

5. What does the narrator tell Ari when Ari comes to visit him after he is attacked?
(a) That he has broken off with Maggie.
(b) That he did solve the Riemann Hypothesis.
(c) That he is from another planet.
(d) That football is boring.

6. What happens when the narrator reaches out to touch Isobel’s neck and kill her?
(a) She turns over and says she loves him.
(b) Newton growls at him and stops him.
(c) Gulliver bursts in and interrupts.
(d) The narrator has a qualm of conscience and stops.

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

8. What is the narrator’s response when he and Gulliver see the boy who bullied Gulliver?
(a) He protects Gulliver from the boy.
(b) He hypnotizes the boy and adjusts his mind.
(c) He challenges the boy to fight.
(d) He turns around so the boy doesn’t see them.

9. What does the narrator say must be a chief cause of sexual relationships on earth?
(a) The dark night sky.
(b) The shape of human bodies.
(c) The strength of the planet’s magnetic field.
(d) The thickness of the atmosphere.

10. What does the narrator say when Isobel describes the early days of her courtship with Andrew Martin?
(a) Those people are dead, now.
(b) That was a lifetime ago.
(c) I really loved you then.
(d) He must have loved you.

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

12. What will the consequence be, if the narrator surrenders his gifts?
(a) He will never become fully human.
(b) He will have to start again as a human child.
(c) He will never be able to return home.
(d) He will start to decompose in Earth’s atmosphere.

13. How does the narrator characterize Maggie’s gaze?
(a) Terrible honesty.
(b) Accusatory injury.
(c) Thoughtful restraint.
(d) Startling frankness.

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

15. How does the narrator destroy the replacement’s gifts?
(a) By cutting off his hand.
(b) By keeping the tv and radio on.
(c) By beheading him.
(d) By burning his hand on the stove.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Ari compare prime numbers to?

2. What does the narrator say he found terrifying about making love with Maggie?

3. How does the narrator try to blunt the replacement’s power?

4. Who said that if you put your hand on a stove, a minute feels like an hour, but sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it feels like just a minute?

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

(see the answer keys)

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