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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the narrator say he expected when he answered the newspaper ad?
(a) A temple
(b) A library
(c) An atmospheric brownstone
(d) A zoo

2. What is the narrator’s reaction when he hears the rival creation story Ishmael tells in Chapter 4?
(a) He sees the point immediately
(b) He does not understand it
(c) He is furious
(d) He is amused

3. When does the narrator’s creation story begin?
(a) 2 thousand years ago
(b) 10- 15 billion years ago
(c) 4 billion years ago
(d) 250 thousand years ago

4. Where, in the narrator’s account, does the destruction of the earth get reversed?
(a) As soon as someone discovers how to make money from healing the natural world
(b) It never does
(c) In the future, with the children
(d) As soon as the political parties can come to agreement

5. What does the narrator answer when Ishmael asks him, in Chapter 5, what man’s destiny is?
(a) To take care of other people
(b) To build civilization
(c) To turn the planet into a garden
(d) To fulfill himself

6. What distinction does Ishmael point out between Leaver and Taker cultures?
(a) The absence of guilt in Leaver culture
(b) The absence of medicine in Leaver culture
(c) The absence of the fear of death in Leaver culture
(d) The absence of prophets in Leaver culture

7. What does the narrator say was removed when man learned to farm?
(a) The temptation to control nature
(b) The need to have respect for animals
(c) The desire for earthly paradise
(d) The limitations of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle

8. What is the story the narrator tells in Chapter 3?
(a) The war between good and evil
(b) God’s creation of the universe
(c) The evolution of man
(d) God’s expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden

9. What does the narrator say is his first impression of the room in Chapter 1?
(a) Wisdom
(b) Anger
(c) Comfort
(d) Emptiness

10. In Chapter 4, why does the narrator say he does not display the emotion he wants when the narrator finally realizes the truth of what Ishmael has been talking about?
(a) He says that he is more flabbergasted than he could express
(b) He says that he does not show his emotions
(c) He says that the pleasure of seeing is intellectual for him, not emotional
(d) He says that he still does not see

11. What is the ‘but’ Ishmael sees in the narrator’s story: “The world was made for man to conquer, and turn into a paradise--except for what”?
(a) The natural world would not support all of men’s plans
(b) People screwed it up
(c) Wealth was never going to be distributed equitably
(d) Man was always going to be able to imagine more than he could get for himself

12. How does the narrator characterize Ishmael’s expression when he gets the narrator to see that the idea that man should rule the earth is a myth?
(a) Smug
(b) Triumphant
(c) Ironic
(d) Glum

13. What does Ishmael say man’s importance must be, in the eyes of the gods, in the narrator’s creation myth?
(a) Man must be a creature of enormous importance
(b) Man must attain value as he understands the gods’ laws
(c) Man must be insignificant
(d) Certain men must be more important than others

14. How does Ishmael say that men see the ruin of nature, according to the narrator’s culture’s mythology?
(a) As the result of God’s plan
(b) As the price to be paid for ruling the earth
(c) As the plan nature had for mankind
(d) As the visitation of god’s judgment

15. What does Ishmael say, in Chapter 5, is man’s purpose on the earth?
(a) To fulfill it
(b) To dream it
(c) To perfect it
(d) To rule it

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Ishmael characterize the notion that agriculture started in the Fertile Crescent?

2. What event does Ishmael say correlates to the birth of the Takers’ story?

3. What does Ishmael say is the purpose of Mother Culture’s story?

4. What does the narrator say his relationship with Nazi Germany is?

5. When does Ishmael say he was truly born?

(see the answer keys)

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