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

2. What does Ishmael say the narrator will be the result of learning what he is teaching?
(a) He will be isolated
(b) He will want to become religious
(c) He will become a writer
(d) He will go to war

3. What does Ishmael say the world was created for, in the narrator’s story in Chapter 4?
(a) Man’s use
(b) No purpose at all
(c) The fulfillment of divine ideas
(d) The fulfillment of each of its creatures

4. Where does Ishmael say he was born?
(a) West Africa
(b) Memphis
(c) India
(d) Tibet.

5. How does Ishmael get the narrator to recognize the limitation of his creation myth?
(a) By asking him whether evolution continued beyond man
(b) By asking him to describe the same story from an ant’s perspective
(c) By asking him to consider whether his own discontent was part of evolution as well
(d) By asking him to think about the world without people in it

Short Answer Questions

1. What end does Ishmael say he foresees for the Takers’ culture?

2. How does Ishmael say the followers of Copernicus convinced people to change their view of heliocentrism?

3. In Chapter 5, how does the narrator characterize the world without man?

4. What does the narrator say is his first impression of the room in Chapter 1?

5. 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?

Short Essay Questions

1. What correlation does Ishmael draw between Nazi Germany and the narrator’s culture?

2. How does Ishmael say that their discussion is like sightseeing?

3. What does the sign that the narrator notices behind the gorilla say, and what does the narrator interpret it to mean?

4. What are the definitions Ishmael lays out for the narrator?

5. Why does Ishmael provide the narrator with a tape recorder?

6. How does the narrator react when Ishmael finally gets him to see that his culture’s narrative is just a myth—and what is the significance of the narrator’s response?

7. What is the rival creation story Ishmael tells the narrator?

8. What does Ishmael say man’s purpose is, in the narrator’s creation myth?

9. What does Ishmael say is his greatest fantasy?

10. What does Ishmael say will be the result, once the narrator learns to hear Mother Culture’s voice?

(see the answer keys)

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