Quiz Ascension Nicholas Binge

Ascension Book Quiz – 20 Questions

Plot and Sequence (8 Questions)

  1. What event opens the novel?
    A) Harold receives a letter from the Warden
    B) Harold witnesses his friend John McAllister’s suicide, which was foretold
    C) Naoko falls into a crevasse
    D) The mountain first appears in the Pacific

  2. What does Harold see from the helicopter upon arriving at the mountain?
    A) A massive crater
    B) A sense of yūgen – an overwhelming, mysterious beauty
    C) The summit shrouded in clouds
    D) Leviathans swimming through the air

  3. What geological anomaly does Thomas Fung discover about the mountain’s rock layers?
    (Short answer)

  4. During the first attack by an alien creature, what happens to Jet Towles?
    A) He is killed instantly
    B) His leg is severely wounded and he becomes crippled
    C) He disappears into a fold
    D) He rescues Naoko

  5. What is the name of the secret corporate entity Palmer and the Warden discuss on the satellite phone?
    (Short answer)

  6. Who kills Polya Volikova?
    A) Neil Amai
    B) The Warden
    C) Jet Towles
    D) A leviathan

  7. What does Harold reveal about Neil Amai’s name when spelled backwards?
    A) “I am alien”
    B) “I am a man”
    C) “I am Neil”
    D) “I am eternal”

  8. How does Grace Palmer die?
    A) She falls into a crevasse
    B) She is killed by a leviathan after using a grenade
    C) She freezes in a storm
    D) She is shot by the Warden

Character Motivation (5 Questions)

  1. Why does Harold initially agree to join the expedition?
    A) He is forced by the Warden
    B) He wants to understand John’s precognition and find his estranged wife Naoko
    C) He seeks fame as a scientist
    D) He hopes to prove the mountain is a hallucination

  2. What drives Sir Roger Bettan to climb the mountain?
    (Short answer)

  3. Why does Naoko reject Harold when he visits her tent at Camp 1?
    A) She has fallen in love with Neil
    B) She accuses him of working with “them” and of abandoning her
    C) She is suffering from altitude sickness
    D) She does not recognize him

  4. What is the Warden’s (Steve Bautista) primary motivation throughout the expedition?
    (Short answer)

  5. Why does Jet continue climbing despite his crippling leg injury?
    A) He hopes to find a cure on the mountain
    B) He believes the mountain holds groundbreaking secrets and wants to go higher
    C) He is forced by Palmer
    D) He wants to avenge Polya

Theme and Symbol (4 Questions)

  1. What does the epigraph from Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus symbolize in the novel?
    A) The futility of all human effort
    B) The absurd struggle and finding meaning in striving, even without a final goal
    C) The inevitability of death
    D) The punishment of pride

  2. What does the tesseract (four‑dimensional hypermountain) represent in the story?
    (Short answer)

  3. What does the carved netsuke symbolize for Harold?
    A) His scientific ambition
    B) The mountain itself
    C) Memory of his family, especially Naoko and Santi
    D) A key to the folds

  4. According to Neil, what is the purpose of the mountain as a test for humanity?
    (Short answer)

Synthesis (3 Questions)

  1. How does the novel use the concept of time distortion to explore Harold’s guilt?
    (Short answer)

  2. What might the leviathan creatures represent thematically in the story?
    A) The beauty of alien life
    B) The unconscious fears and the consequences of human hubris
    C) A new species to be studied
    D) The mountain’s protective guardians

  3. In the afterword, Harold’s brother writes, “One must imagine them happy.” How does this echo the epigraph from Camus?
    (Short answer)

Answer Key

Plot and Sequence

  1. B – The novel opens with Harold writing a letter describing how John McAllister predicted his own suicide and then carried it out exactly as foretold.
  2. B – During the helicopter ascent Harold experiences yūgen, a profound aesthetic sense of the universe’s mystery, as he first sees the mountain.
  3. The rock layers are jumbled from different continents and geological eras, suggesting the mountain was assembled from disparate times and places. (Chapter 6)
  4. B – During the attack of the tentacled creature, Jet’s leg is badly wounded, and he later uses a makeshift crutch. (Chapter 9)
  5. Apollo – The Warden and Palmer discuss “Apollo” on a satellite phone; it is later revealed to be a corporate venture funding the expedition. (Chapter 12)
  6. C – In the cave, Jet kills Polya after she photographs the wall map; he has been transformed by the leviathans. (Chapter 14)
  7. A – When Harold spells “Amai” backward he gets “I am alien,” revealing Neil is an alien agent. (Chapter 19)
  8. B – Grace Palmer pulls the pin on a grenade and lets a leviathan charge into her, sacrificing herself to destroy it. (Chapter 20)

Character Motivation

  1. B – Harold wants to investigate the precognition that led to John’s death and to reconnect with Naoko, who survived the first expedition.
  2. Bettan is driven by ego and the desire to be the first to conquer the highest mountain on Earth. He is obsessed with climbing and proving himself. (Chapter 4)
  3. B – Naoko accuses Harold of working with the authorities who locked her away and of abandoning her after Santi’s death. (Chapter 7)
  4. The Warden’s primary motivation is to complete the mission and protect the team, though he also serves the larger Apollo project. He becomes increasingly paranoid as the climb progresses. (Chapters 12, 15)
  5. B – Jet is passionately curious about the microbes and the alien life; he believes the summit holds answers and refuses to be sidelined. (Chapter 6, 10)

Theme and Symbol

  1. B – The epigraph establishes an absurdist perspective: the value is in the climb itself, not the destination. This theme runs throughout Harold’s journey.
  2. The tesseract represents the mountain as a four‑dimensional object in which time behaves like a two‑dimensional plane, allowing time distortion and folds. (Chapter 12)
  3. C – Harold carves netsuke to remember Naoko and Santi; the afterword confirms he continued this ritual in the asylum. (Chapters 7, 22)
  4. Neil says the mountain is an experiment to create the next human species, Homo altior, by granting a “seed” to the one who reaches the summit. (Chapter 21)

Synthesis

  1. Time distortion forces Harold to confront his greatest regret (Santi’s drowning) through visions and recurring memories. The mountain’s folds collapse past and present, making guilt inescapable until he accepts forgiveness. (Chapters 11, 17, 18)
  2. B – The leviathans externalize internal rage and suicidal despair; they also embody the threat of the unknown and the cost of human ambition. (Chapter 16, 20)
  3. The brother’s line directly parallels Camus’s “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” It suggests that Harold, Naoko, and Santi exist outside normal time on the mountain, finding meaning in their eternal togetherness despite the tragedy.