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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where did Nathaniel meet Madison, Amity, and Lyle?
(a) In high school.
(b) In college.
(c) At his first job in New York.
(d) At a bar near Matsumoto's loft.

2. Of all of the things that Nathaniel can see from Matsumoto's loft, which is most important to him?
(a) The World Trade Center.
(b) The Empire State Building.
(c) The Statue of Liberty.
(d) The Chrysler Building.

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

4. 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 find another woman to love and be happy again.
(c) He will try to think more kindly about Rose and Isaac.
(d) He will find another apartment for Nathaniel.

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

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

7. 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 feel sad."
(b) "Don't bother about the phones."
(c) "Don't believe everything you hear."
(d) "Don't worry."

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

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

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

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

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

13. What is Nathaniel's job in the narrative present?
(a) He works in the New York subway's architecture department.
(b) He is a bartender at a bar near Matsumoto's loft.
(c) He works as a building manager for Matsumoto.
(d) He works on the floor of the New York Stock exchange.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What made tears come into Nathaniel's eyes the first time he saw Matsumoto's loft?

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

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

4. To what does Nathaniel compare the sight of Manhattan from Matsumoto's loft?

5. What does Isaac do for a living?

(see the answer keys)

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