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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 Ari compare prime numbers to?

2. What is life like for the narrator after he loses his gifts?

3. What does the narrator take comfort in, after Gulliver beats him?

4. How does the narrator define human life?

5. How long does Isobel say it has been, since she and her husband talked as openly as they talk after Hamlet?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when the narrator tells Isobel about having sex with Maggie?

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

3. What happens to prevent the narrator killing Gulliver?

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

5. How does the narrator characterize sex with Maggie?

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

7. What is the general tendency in the advice the narrator writes out for his son (and for the reader)?

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

9. How does the narrator defuse the humor and anxiety in his classroom, when he returns to teaching for the first time after being arrested for being naked?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 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

Where is the climax of this book? Are there different climaxes? What questions does each climax resolve? What questions does each climax leave unanswered?

(see the answer keys)

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