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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. How does Gulliver answer when the narrator asks what he was doing at the train tracks?
(a) He protests.
(b) He accuses.
(c) He laments.
(d) He groans.

3. What assumption in his audience does the narrator seek to overturn?
(a) That humanity will save the universe.
(b) That humanity is meaningless.
(c) That humanity teaches kindness and sympathy.
(d) That humanity deserves saving.

4. What is the first question the narrator feels he has given the right answer to?
(a) Whether he is having an affair with a student.
(b) Whether he likes being married.
(c) Whether he has been under pressure.
(d) Whether he would like to go home.

5. Why does the narrator say he does not like wearing clothes?
(a) They are embarrassing.
(b) He prefers glorious nakedness.
(c) They chafe.
(d) They are not geometrical enough.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator say is the quintessential experience that defines being on Earth?

2. What is it that moves the narrator during Daniel Russell’s dying moments?

3. What does the narrator say he feels when Isobel tells him that she does not know anything about his solution to the Riemann Hypothesis?

4. Which college of Cambridge University does Andrew Martin teach at?

5. What planet does the man in the holding cell say he is from?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who are the main characters the narrator introduces at the beginning of the novel?

2. What does the narrator like about Emily Dickinson’s poetry?

3. What is the importance of prime numbers for the narrator?

4. How does the narrator characterize life in the world he comes from?

5. How does the narrator explain the Riemann Hypothesis, and what does he say Andrew Martin discovered about it?

6. What makes the narrator’s narrative so funny?

7. How does the narrator characterize his relationship with his hosts, now that he is getting accustomed to Andrew Martin’s life?

8. What does Gulliver tell the narrator about the Martins’ household?

9. What does the narrator tell Daniel Russell before he kills him?

10. What is the narrator’s relationship with pain like?

(see the answer keys)

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