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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The author states in Part II, Section 1, "If Bruno Latour is right, then to be modern is to envision time as" what (123)?
(a) "Reversable."
(b) "Functioning."
(c) "Constant."
(d) "Irreversable."

2. When was the Treaty of Nanking signed on the Cornwallis?
(a) 1849.
(b) 1842.
(c) 1913.
(d) 1815.

3. Who wrote Paul et Virginie?
(a) Bernadin de Saint-Pierre.
(b) Stanislaw Lem.
(c) Ian Hacking.
(d) Ernest Gellner.

4. The author states in the opening of Part 1, Section 16, "To ask how science fiction came to be demarcated from the literary mainstream is to summon another question" (68). What is the question that he poses?
(a) "What is the meaning of science fiction and what is its place in society?"
(b) "Who are the writers of this genre?"
(c) "What is in the nature of modernity that has led to this separation?"
(d) "Who makes the decisions of literary form?"

5. How many tons of dust did Mount Tambora emit when it erupted?
(a) 1.7 million.
(b) 4 million.
(c) 2.2 million.
(d) 0.5 million.

6. When did Rabindranath Tagore win the Nobel Prize for Literature?
(a) 1842.
(b) 1945.
(c) 1913.
(d) 1925.

7. When did the Kosi River disaster in Bihar occur?
(a) 2008.
(b) 2002.
(c) 2010.
(d) 2001.

8. At whose behest were a number of wildlife sanctuaries established in the Burmese kingdom from the 1850s onward?
(a) King Ashoka's.
(b) King Akbar's.
(c) King Amah's.
(d) King Mindon's.

9. Who wrote, "Twentieth-century art has tended to search itself rather than exterior reality for beauty of meaning or truth, a condition that entails a new relationship between the work of art, the world, the spectator, and the artist" (119)?
(a) Roger Shattuck.
(b) Bill McKibben.
(c) Arudhati Roy.
(d) Eduardo Kohn.

10. In the First Opium War, armored steamships led by one named what, played a decisive role?
(a) The Nemesis.
(b) The Cloud.
(c) The Pegasus.
(d) The Empire.

11. What is the title and central subject of Part III?
(a) "Politics."
(b) "Stories."
(c) "Art."
(d) "History."

12. What author did Lionel Trilling famously dismiss as one who thought "like a social function, not a novelist" (79-80)?
(a) Ian Hacking.
(b) John Steinbeck.
(c) Franco Moretti.
(d) Stanislaw Lem.

13. When did the Enterprise depart Falmouth for Calcutta?
(a) June 15, 1825.
(b) September 5, 1825.
(c) August 16, 1825.
(d) March 12, 1825.

14. The first steam-powered vessel to operate in India was a dredger on what river?
(a) The Meghna River.
(b) The Feni River.
(c) The Hooghly River.
(d) The Ganges River.

15. When was Frankenstein published?
(a) 1859.
(b) 1795.
(c) 1818.
(d) 1802.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who wrote, asking of England, "And was Jerusalem builded here, / Among these dark Satanic mills?" (69)?

2. What word from the book refers to the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history, as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time?

3. When was The Circle of Reason published?

4. The novel The Circle of Reason involves the discovery of oil in a fictional emirate called what?

5. What is the title and focus of Part II?

(see the answer keys)

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