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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 does the narrator say when Isobel describes the early days of her courtship with Andrew Martin?

2. How do the narrator’s hosts characterize human beings?

3. What prevents the narrator from telling Ari about his origins?

4. Why does the narrator’s replacement say he did not make his presence known when he broke into the house a few nights before?

5. What does the narrator’s virus change Gulliver’s bullies’ names to on Facebook?

Short Essay Questions

1. What explanation does the narrator offer the hosts, for his inability to perform the task he was sent to perform?

2. How does the narrator find out about the presence of the replacement?

3. How does the narrator characterize human sex?

4. How does the narrator get Gulliver’s buy-in for his authority and power?

5. What effect does the host's “warning” have on the narrator (159)?

6. What does Ari tell the narrator about the possibility of aliens?

7. What brings the narrator back to Isobel and Gulliver?

8. How does the narrator dispose of the replacement’s body?

9. How does the narrator characterize sex with Maggie?

10. What happens when the narrator sets Gulliver up to fight Theo “The Fucking Business” Clarke (181)?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Which is more important in The Humans, math or poetry? Are they opposed to each other? Are they complementary? How does the book define the relation between math and poetry?

Essay Topic 2

Matt Haig seems to delight in describing people as aliens, even in allowing his narrator to all but confess that he is an alien. What is the effect of this language in the novel, and what does this technique show us about regular people and daily life?

Essay Topic 3

Evaluate your own reading of The Humans—did you resist it, or were you compelled by the story? What does your reading tell you about yourself and your interests? Use specific examples from the book to describe yourself as a reader.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,073 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample