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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What deos the narrator say is the chief purpose of magazines?

2. What is it that impresses the narrator about Grigori Perelman?

3. How does the narrator characterize dogs?

4. Where is Gulliver’s room in Andrew Martin’s house?

5. What does Isobel Martin say Andrew Martin is motivated by?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who are the narrator’s chief suspects for people who might know about Andrew Martin’s discovery?

2. What happens in the narrator’s interview with Andrew Martin’s wife Isobel?

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

4. How does the narrator characterize Andrew Martin’s relationship with Gulliver, his son?

5. What is the narrator’s rhetorical stance in The Humans?

6. How does the narrator define beauty for humans?

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

8. How does Haig characterize the marriage between Andrew and Isobel Martin?

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

10. Who does the narrator meet in the cafeteria in the jail?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Identify the source of the humor Matt Haig employs in The Humans. What strategies does he use to get the reader laughing, and how does he vary his technique so that he defines a range of comic possibilities? What is his comic territory?

Essay Topic 2

What topics would you like to research further, after reading The Humans. Describe why additional research or reading would be beneficial to an understanding of this book. Propose a list of articles or books you would read in order to get a better handle on The Humans.

Essay Topic 3

How would The Humans be different if it were narrated by a female mathematician? How might the humor change? How might the moral vision change?

(see the answer keys)

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