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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 he found terrifying about making love with Maggie?
(a) The dysfunction.
(b) The exoticism.
(c) The alienation.
(d) The violence.

2. What is the facet of prime numbers that makes them consoling to the narrator?
(a) Their mutability.
(b) Their indivisibility.
(c) Their importance in crucial formulae.
(d) Their adaptability.

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

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

5. Why does the narrator put his hand on the stove?
(a) To burn away the hosts’ ability to listen to his life.
(b) To make himself feel something.
(c) To evoke Isobel’s sympathy.
(d) To show Gulliver that he is willing to suffer for him.

6. 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 there would be panic if people thought it was possible.
(c) Because the reality would push human beings out of the center of their own worldview.
(d) Because the crisis of science being wrong would destroy human knowledge.

7. What does the narrator say opened in him as he left Andrew Martin’s house?
(a) A black hole.
(b) A blind spot.
(c) A blank spot.
(d) The eye of God.

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

9. What Talking Heads song does the narrator listen to over and over?
(a) Once in a lifetime.
(b) This must be the place.
(c) Wild, wild life.
(d) Burning down the house.

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

11. 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?
(a) Copernicus.
(b) Einstein.
(c) Feynman.
(d) Newton.

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

13. How does Maggie characterize the experience of being human?
(a) Being given a car you cannot drive.
(b) Being money you cannot spend.
(c) Being told about gods you cannot hear from.
(d) Being shown a life you cannot live.

14. Why does the replacement say humans need to be limited in their technology?
(a) If they ever get off the planet, they will not be friendly.
(b) If they learn how to communicate, they will sow divisions in Vonnadorian society.
(c) If they see the splendor of mathematics, they will lose their minds.
(d) If they understand the power of mathematics, they will use it to enrich themselves.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does the narrator get a teaching job?

2. Where does the epigram come from at the end of the book?

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

4. What does the narrator offer the hosts as a justification for not killing Isobel and Gulliver?

5. How does the narrator excuse Gulliver’s violence?

(see the answer keys)

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