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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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) Celebrity clairvoyants making wild predictions in the tabloids.
(c) Preppers sealing their families into shelters underground.
(d) Businesses desperately trying to teach their staffs how to do math without computerized cash registers.

2. Which of the possible consequences of a global computer failure that Nathaniel mentions could be considered foreshadowing?
(a) The idea that airplanes might lose their guidance systems and crash.
(b) The idea that people might be trapped in high-rise elevators.
(c) The idea that hospitals might not be able to monitor patients.
(d) The idea that widespread food shortages might occur.

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

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

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

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

7. Where did Nathaniel live before he moved to New York?
(a) California.
(b) The Midwest.
(c) Minnesota.
(d) The Southwest.

8. 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.

9. What do Rose and Isaac ask Lucien to do when he calls Nathaniel after Nathaniel arrives in New York?
(a) Not tell Nathaniel that they asked Lucien to call.
(b) Tell Nathaniel to go back home.
(c) Find Nathaniel a place to live.
(d) Get Nathaniel a job.

10. What is the name of Lucien's assistant?
(a) Rashana.
(b) Sharmila.
(c) Devahuti.
(d) Advika.

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

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

13. What does Nathaniel do with his spare time that his parents find worrisome?
(a) Draws comics.
(b) Sings in a band.
(c) Goes rock climbing.
(d) Skateboards.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Where did Nathaniel meet Madison, Amity, and Lyle?

2. What does Nathaniel suggest that people might be desperate enough to burn in the wake of a global computer failure?

3. Why is Lyle sad all of the time?

4. What is Nathaniel's job in the narrative present?

5. From the story's context, when must Charlie have died?

(see the answer keys)

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