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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How much does Vonnegut believe is enough to make a masterpiece? Beyond that, it is like empty talk at the end of a party.
(a) One-third.
(b) Three-fourths.
(c) One-half.
(d) Two-thirds.

2. Vonnegut is enthusiastic about Pollock's work, but what does he feel is missing from Pollock's paintings?
(a) Color.
(b) Organization.
(c) Human figures.
(d) A horizon.

3. Why does the Spanish Civil War give Hemingway material rather than World War I?
(a) The Spanish Civial War has more exciting battles than World War I.
(b) Americans are too upset by World War I.
(c) Hemingway knows more about the Spanish Civil War than World War I.
(d) The U.S. enters World War I too late to have war stories.

4. What is one thing Vonnegut mentions in his letter to the future?
(a) Future generations need to use more petroleum for fuel.
(b) Today's rulers need to stop thinking science can fix anything for $1 trillion.
(c) Countries in the future should stop communicating with one another.
(d) Leaders of the future should fix the environment issues through scientific discoveries.

5. Why does Vonnegut miss his 50th high school reunion?
(a) He contracts Lyme disease.
(b) He forgets the date of his reunion.
(c) His plane is delayed.
(d) He catches pneumonia.

6. What limits Algren's popularity?
(a) His distinct odor.
(b) A penchant for truth.
(c) His lack of connections.
(d) His foul personality.

7. Vonnegut is the third person in his family to have a one-person show and the second to put in time in a "laughing academy." What is he the first to do?
(a) Create art.
(b) Have an unhappy marriage.
(c) Divorce and remarry.
(d) Write.

8. What tribal name do the Vonneguts give themselves?
(a) Black Feathers.
(b) Epta mayan-boys.
(c) Pottawatomie.
(d) Aztec-girls.

9. Vonnegut laments that people can say atrocious things in public, but he is charged with encouraging what?
(a) vulgar language.
(b) violence against women and kiddy porn.
(c) violence against ethnic minorities.
(d) violent protests.

10. To what does Vonnegut compare the lyrics of the new requiem setting?
(a) The 100 Years War.
(b) The Renaissance.
(c) The Spanish Inquisition.
(d) The Tang Dynasty.

11. What do the free speech provisions of the First Amendment make Vonnegut want to do?
(a) Cry.
(b) Throw up.
(c) Cheer.
(d) Sing.

12. What are heavy among the writers Vonnegut cares about?
(a) Casualties.
(b) Their weights.
(c) Their appetites.
(d) Their hearts.

13. Requiem masses are customarily sung in what language?
(a) French.
(b) Latin.
(c) Italian.
(d) Spanish.

14. What does Vonnegut assert is often Hemingway's male characters' greatest reward?
(a) Becoming enlightened.
(b) Winning a battle.
(c) Males feeling love for one another in proximity to danger.
(d) Winning the heart of a woman.

15. According to the Attorney General's Commission, what is worth its expensive price tag?
(a) billion-dollar condominiums.
(b) billion-dollar NASA spacecraft.
(c) billion-dollar financial institutions.
(d) billion-dollar airplanes.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Vonnegut miss from his youth?

2. Why is Vonnegut good with guns?

3. Vonnegut references what Biblical story to his belief that people find life too hard and disappointing to act on repairing it?

4. The Vonnegut family expects its family members to go out east to college. Where does the author's dad, Kurt Vonnegut Sr., go to college?

5. What happens to all writers?

(see the answer keys)

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