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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. What does Dr. Breed accuse John of being a member of in Chapter 21?
(a) The FBI.
(b) The yellow press.
(c) The CIA.
(d) The communist party.

2. What does Dr. Breed's secretary say "God really is" in Chapter 26?
(a) "Nothing."
(b) "Love."
(c) "Man."
(d) "Fear."

3. How old was Newt Hoenikker when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima?
(a) 9.
(b) 13.
(c) 4.
(d) 6.

4. What does John claim Alfred Nobel invented in Chapter 32?
(a) Steel.
(b) Gunpowder.
(c) The submarine.
(d) Dynamite.

5. How old is Frank Hoenikker when John finds his picture in the newspaper supplement in Chapter 37?
(a) 26.
(b) 36.
(c) 29.
(d) 32.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is defined by Bokonon as "a person who steers people away from a line of speculation by reducing that line . . . to an absurdity"?

2. What is the married name of Newt's sister, as revealed in his letter in Chapter 5?

3. For what company did Dr. Felix Hoenikker work most of his life?

4. What is Dr. Breed's first name?

5. John cites Bokonon in Chapter 31 as having said, "Peculiar travel suggestions are" what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What irony can be found in Dr. Breed's discussions of superstition in Chapters 16-18?

2. What is significant about Frank's action of staging bug fights in Chapter 6?

3. What is the significance of the literary/religious allusion in the opening of Chapter 1?

4. What statement do you think that Vonnegut is making in regards to politics and science in Cat's Cradle?

5. How does fate bring the narrator to San Lorenzo?

6. How is the theory of "Dynamic Tension" described in Chapter 47?

7. How is Dr. Felix Hoenikker's personality described in Cat's Cradle?

8. How does Bokononism influence the language style of the novel?

9. What is surprising to John when he encounters the Hoenikker burial plot in Chapters 29 and 30?

10. How does the narrator describe San Lorenzo's attempt at communism in the narrative?

(see the answer keys)

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