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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. To whom does Nathaniel imagine telling the story of the Y2K computer issue?
(a) His readers.
(b) A historian.
(c) His children.
(d) His grandchildren.

2. What does Nathaniel say history teaches us?
(a) Systems and institutions favor the powerful by their very nature.
(b) If we do not study the past, we will inevitably repeat unhelpful patterns.
(c) There are too many variables for humans to be effective at thinking ahead.
(d) Great people rise to prominence regardless of their circumstances.

3. What is Russell's business relationship to Amity?
(a) He is her lawyer.
(b) He is an employee of her P.R. firm.
(c) He works with her at the stock exchange.
(d) He is her book agent.

4. Besides their minimal rent, what task are Nathaniel and his roommates performing in exchange for a place to live?
(a) They collect the rent from Matsumoto's other tenants.
(b) They take care of Matsumoto's cats.
(c) They are repainting the loft.
(d) They sort through and forward Matsumoto's mail.

5. How are Nathaniel and Lucien related?
(a) Nathaniel is Lucian's son-in-law.
(b) Nathaniel is Lucien's nephew by marriage.
(c) Nathaniel is Lucien's brother's son.
(d) Nathaniel is Lucian's cousin's son.

6. After Charlie became ill, what did Lucien feel was happening to the world?
(a) It was melting away into nothing.
(b) It was shattering like broken glass.
(c) It was all turning into paper.
(d) It was burning down around him.

7. What does Nathaniel suggest that people might be desperate enough to burn in the wake of a global computer failure?
(a) Their old issues of the New York Review.
(b) Their designer clothing and shoes.
(c) Their children's elementary school artwork.
(d) Stacks of money.

8. Which character works for Itami Systems?
(a) Lyle.
(b) Matsumoto.
(c) Lucien.
(d) Madison.

9. What made tears come into Nathaniel's eyes the first time he saw Matsumoto's loft?
(a) The art on the walls.
(b) The view from the terrace.
(c) The flat-screen television.
(d) The Jacuzzi in the bathroom.

10. From the story's context, when must Charlie have died?
(a) Shortly after the September 11th attack.
(b) Before the year 2000.
(c) In the year 2003.
(d) In the year 2000.

11. What does Nathaniel say that ceremonial occasions remind us about?
(a) That time only moves in one direction.
(b) That ideas are bigger than any one person.
(c) That we should love one another.
(d) That life is unpredictable.

12. To what does Nathaniel compare the sight of Manhattan from Matsumoto's loft?
(a) The circuit board of a computer.
(b) Van Gogh's Starry Night.
(c) A glass of champagne.
(d) A miniature city from his childhood train set.

13. When Lucien is in the gallery imagining that he is with Charlie, what does he promise her?
(a) He will find another apartment for Nathaniel.
(b) He will find another woman to love and be happy again.
(c) He will put more energy into the gallery.
(d) He will try to think more kindly about Rose and Isaac.

14. What does Lucien end up saying to his assistant on page 8 when he wants to give her a piece of advice?
(a) "Don't worry."
(b) "Don't feel sad."
(c) "Don't believe everything you hear."
(d) "Don't bother about the phones."

15. What ridiculous detail does Nathaniel give in his description of the last months of 1999?
(a) Cults announcing that aliens would come to Earth at midnight on New Year's Eve.
(b) Businesses desperately trying to teach their staffs how to do math without computerized cash registers.
(c) Celebrity clairvoyants making wild predictions in the tabloids.
(d) Preppers sealing their families into shelters underground.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Nathaniel do with his spare time that his parents find worrisome?

2. Which of the possible consequences of a global computer failure that Nathaniel mentions could be considered foreshadowing?

3. What does Isaac do for a living?

4. Why is Lyle sad all of the time?

5. Of all of the things that Nathaniel can see from Matsumoto's loft, which is most important to him?

(see the answer keys)

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