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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. What are the narrator’s feelings about rain?
(a) It silences him.
(b) It makes him nostalgic.
(c) He hates it.
(d) It soothes him.

2. What does the narrator find distinguished about Grigori Perelman?
(a) His humanitarian career.
(b) His mathematical genius.
(c) He passed up a million dollar prize for solving a mathematical problem.
(d) His mathematical certainty.

3. What does the narrator say is the best way to get someone on your side?
(a) Show them your vulnerability.
(b) Relieve their pain.
(c) Serve them food.
(d) Show them what you stand for.

4. What deos the narrator say is the chief purpose of magazines?
(a) To supplement ethnographic research about how other people live.
(b) To create a sense of inferiority in the reader.
(c) To generate envy in poorer humans.
(d) To provide political updates.

5. What causes the narrator to thank someone for the first time in his life?
(a) Ari gives him a ride home.
(b) Gulliver says he hope he is feeling better.
(c) Zӧe compliments him.
(d) Isobel brings him a sandwich.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What effect does the TV have on the narrator’s pain?

3. What does the narrator conclude human beings enjoy about music?

4. What does the narrator say is the “emergency exit for humans” (42)?

5. What does the narrator conclude after following Gulliver?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is happening in the first scene the narrator describes in his narrative?

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

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

4. What does the narrator learn about mathematicians that undermines his core beliefs about human beings?

5. How does Andrew Martin characterize his discovery in the introduction the narrator reads?

6. How is the narrator ultimately captured by the police?

7. How does the narrator ultimately get himself out of prison?

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

9. How does the narrator characterize his relationship with Newton, the family dog?

10. How does the narrator define beauty for humans?

(see the answer keys)

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