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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 is the facet of prime numbers that makes them consoling to the narrator?

2. What is the title of Isobel’s novel?

3. What is the narrator moved by at Daniel Russell’s funeral?

4. Who is Nat?

5. What part of the night sky does the narrator say affects humans?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Gulliver tell the narrator he wants, now that all the facts have come out?

3. What is the narrator about to tell Isobel when he sees Zӧe being harassed on the street?

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

5. Why does the narrator say he did not try to patch things up with Isobel?

6. What effect does the evening out at Hamlet have on Isobel?

7. Why does the narrator put his hand on the AGA where the replacement’s hand had been burned?

8. How does Maggie characterize what it means to be human?

9. What is the secret Ari has been keeping for Andrew Martin?

10. What contrast does the narrator draw between his home and Earth, after Isobel takes care of him?

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

Evaluate the ending of The Humans. Does it ring true to you? Does it successfully resolve the problems and tensions that preceded it? What would you change, if anything? What are you left wishing for closure on, if anything?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 980 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample