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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. For what purpose does the unnamed narrator choose the particular book he brings along on the residency?
(a) To use it as a model for his own book.
(b) To get it signed.
(c) For a teaching assignment.
(d) To remind him why he loves writing.

2. The unnamed narrator states that "the most riveting and disturbing and particular passages" of his one book "are about" (166) which topic?
(a) The French-Indian War.
(b) The Spanish-American War.
(c) World War I.
(d) The Civil War.

3. The unnamed narrator must leave in the middle of Noor's story one day during their shift to check if which item is in stock?
(a) Figs.
(b) Artichokes.
(c) Dried mangoes.
(d) Prunes.

4. What percentage of the unnamed narrator's bill at the hospital in Part Three is covered by his insurance?
(a) 50.
(b) 20.
(c) 0.
(d) 70.

5. From what type of establishment does the unnamed narrator buy his groceries throughout his residency in Texas?
(a) A gas station.
(b) A farmers' market.
(c) An organic grocery store.
(d) A supermarket.

Short Answer Questions

1. What task is the unnamed narrator supposed to be working on during the residency?

2. Alena puts the pieces of a shattered sculpture by which artist into the unnamed narrator's hands?

3. Which element of the physical world never gives the unnamed narrator a "little thrill" (107)?

4. At which airport is the unnamed narrator picked up by "Michael, the caretaker of the residency houses" (163)?

5. The distinguished female author and the unnamed narrator both order what dish?

Short Essay Questions

1. What aspect of Walt Whitman's strange autobiography Specimen Days disgusts the unnamed narrator and why?

2. What is the unnamed narrator's specific reason for feeling the way he does about the totaled art?

3. How does the unnamed narrator react to holding the Jeff Koons balloon dog sculpture in Part Three and how do Alena and Peter react to his reaction?

4. How does the unnamed narrator's usual routine change during his writers' residency?

5. Name three excuses the unnamed narrator uses when people ask to see him during his writers' residency.

6. For what purpose does the unnamed narrator visit the seventh floor of New-York Presbyterian Hospital at the beginning of Part Three?

7. In what way does the unnamed narrator set up a dichotomy between the art of the "readymade" (133) and the totaled art in Alena's institute?

8. On what adventure does the unnamed narrator take eight-year-old Roberto in Part Three?

9. How does the theme of fatherhood enter the narrative in Part Four?

10. What mistake does the intern make in Part Four and what similar mistake does the unnamed narrator make?

(see the answer keys)

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