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 ch06
Student: ___________________________________________________________________________

1. Free trade refers to a situation where a government does not attempt to influence through quotas or duties
what its citizens can buy from another country.
True False
2. The theories of Smith and Ricardo show that countries should not engage in international trade for
products that it is able to produce for itself.
True False
3. David Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage explains international trade in terms of international
differences in political environments.
True False
4. New trade theory stresses that in some cases countries specialize in the production and export of
particular products because the world market can support only a limited number of firms.
True False
5. Porter's theory of national competitive advantage recommends unrestricted free trade between countries.

True False
6. Heckscher-Ohlin theory supports the case for unrestricted free trade between nations.
True False
7. Mercantilism supports the idea that countries should export more than what they import.
True False
8. Mercantilist doctrine advocates unrestricted free trade between countries.
True False
9. The principle of mercantilism views trade as a positive-sum game.
True False
10. A country has an absolute advantage in the production of a product when it is more efficient than any
other country in producing it.
True False
11. Adam smith argued that countries should specialize in the production of goods for which they have an
absolute advantage.
True False
12. According to Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage, countries should produce all the products for
which they have an absolute advantage.
True False
13. According to Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage, countries shall not produce a good even if they
have an absolute advantage in its production.
True False
14. The theory of comparative advantage suggests that trade is a positive-sum game in which all countries
that participate realize economic gains.
True False
15. Simple model of free trade assumed away transportation costs between countries.
True False
16. Resources always move easily from one economic activity to another.
True False
17. The production possibility frontier will be parabolic if constant return to specialization is observed.
True False
18. The production possibility frontier will be convex if constant return to specialization is observed.
True False
19. Diminishing returns show that it is feasible for a country to specialize to the degree suggested by the
simple Ricardian model.
True False
20. The simple comparative advantage model assumed that trade does not change a country's stock of
resources or the efficiency with which it utilizes those resources.
True False
21. According to Paul Samuelson's critique, a poor country will rapidly improve its productivity if a rich
country enters into a free trade agreement with it.
True False
22. Paul Samuelson's critique argues that trade is a positive-sum game in which all countries that participate
realize economic gains.
True False
23. A rich country improves its productivity by engaging in free trade with a poor country. This situation
supports Paul Samuelson's critique.
True False
24. Factor endowments refer to the extent to which a country is gifted with such resources as land, labor, and
capital.
True False
25. The Heckscher-Ohlin theory predicts that countries will export those goods that make intensive use of
factors that are locally scarce.
True False
26. Heckscher-Ohlin theory stresses that comparative advantage arises from differences in productivity.
True False
27. The Heckscher-Ohlin theory argues that the pattern of international trade is determined by differences in
factor endowments.
True False
28. Ricardo's theory makes fewer simplifying assumptions compared to Heckscher-Ohlin theory.
True False
29. A capital intensive country exports products that are capital intensive. This is an example of Leontief
Paradox.
True False
30. A key assumption in the Heckscher-Ohlin theory is that technologies are the same across countries.
True False
31. The product life-cycle theory argues that a large proportion of the world's new products had been
developed by U.S. firms.
True False
32. The product life-cycle theory argues that the developing nations will not produce a product if the product
is highly standardized.
True False
33. Some of the arguments made by the product life-cycle theory seem ethnocentric and increasingly dated
when viewed from an Asian or European perspective.
True False
34. Economies of scale are unit cost reductions associated with a large scale of output.
True False
35. Companies that trade small volumes of product can benefit from economies of scale.
True False
36. Variety of goods that a country can produce is limited by the size of the market in industries where
economies of scale are important.
True False
37. First-mover advantages are the economic and strategic advantages that accrue to early entrants into an
industry.
True False
38. New trade theory suggests that nations cannot benefit from trade when they do not differ in resource
endowments or technology.
True False
39. According to the new trade theory, firms that establish a first-mover advantage with regard to the
production of a particular new product may subsequently dominate global trade in that product.
True False
40. The theories of international trade claim that promoting free trade is generally in the best interests of an
individual firm, although it may not always be in the best interest of a country.
True False
41. New trade theorists stress the role of luck in giving a firm first-mover advantages.
True False
42. Porter contends that government has little or no effect on the four components that shape the environment
in which firms compete.
True False
43. From a profit perspective, it makes sense for firms to disperse their productive activities to those
countries where they can be performed most efficiently.
True False
44. Which of the following refers to a situation where a government does not attempt to influence through
quotas or duties what its citizens can buy from another country?
A. Economic patriotism
B. Protectionism
C. Free trade
D. Offshoring
45. Which of the following is a major benefit of engaging in free trade?
A. It helps to reduce the financial volatility in global markets.
B. It helps the countries protect the jobs that are available to their citizens.
C. It gives countries access to products that they cannot produce.
D. It allows the governments to exert more control on businesses.
46. David Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage explains global trade in terms of the ____.
A. first mover advantage that certain countries and firms enjoy
B. geographical differences between various countries
C. international differences in labor productivity
D. late mover advantage that certain countries and firms possess
47. Which of the following theories emphasizes the interplay between the proportions in which the factors of
production are available in different countries and the proportions in which they are needed for producing
particular goods?
A. Porter's theory
B. Smith's theory
C. Ricardo's theory
D. Heckscher-Ohlin theory
48. Identify the theory that supports the view that in some cases countries export for the reason that the world
market can support only a limited number of firms.
A. Heckscher-Ohlin theory
B. Smith's theory
C. Ricardo's theory
D. New trade theory
49. Country A exports electronic goods from Country B although there are no underlying differences in
factor endowments between the two countries. Which of the following theories explains this anomaly?

A. Comparative advantage theory

B. New trade theory
C. Ricardo's theory
D. Smith's theory
50. Which of the following observations is consistent with Michael Porter's theory of national competitive
advantage?
A. Factors such as domestic demand and domestic rivalry determine nations' dominance on production.
B. Countries should produce only those goods for which they have a comparative advantage.
C. Interplay between the factors of production cause international marketing decisions.
D. International differences in labor productivity determine nations' supremacy in production.
51. Which of the following is a theory that can be used to justify limited government intervention to support
the development of certain export-oriented industries?
A. Comparative advantage theory
B. Ricardo's theory
C. New trade theory
D. Heckscher-Ohlin theory
52. Which of the following is the main principle of mercantilism?
A. Protection of domestic industries is not essential for a nation's welfare.
B. Government intervention is not required in global trade.
C. Countries should encourage absolute free trade.
D. It is in a country's best interests to maintain a trade surplus.
53. Which of the following is a major flaw associated with mercantilism?
A. Mercantilists do not support government intervention in trade.
B. Mercantilists view trade as a zero-sum game.
C. Mercantilists recommend policies to maximize imports.
D. Mercantilists recommend countries to maintain a negative trade balance.
54. A country has an absolute advantage in the production of a product when it ____.
A. has the capability to produce the product within its boundaries
B. is more efficient than any other country in producing it
C. has the largest domestic demand for the product
D. has access to the raw materials needed to produce the product
55. According to Adam Smith, A country should specialize in the production of a good when it has ____.
A. an absolute advantage in the production of the good
B. a strong domestic demand for the good
C. the ability to help country increase its national output
D. the necessary raw materials for production
56. Country A can produce product X, but it can also buy it at a cheap rate from Country B. Which of the
following courses of action is suitable in this situation according to Adam Smith's theory of absolute
advantage?
A. Country A should import product X from country B and it should not attempt to produce it at home.
B. Country A should partly import the product and produce it domestically.
C. Country A should produce more of product X and should attempt to obtain an absolute advantage for
the product.
D. Country A should subsidize the production of product X to obtain an absolute advantage over country
B.
57. According to Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage, a country should produce goods ____.
A. for which it has access to raw materials
B. that it produces most efficiently
C. that have the highest domestic demand
D. for which it has an absolute advantage
58. Which of the following is a statement that supports the theory of comparative advantage?
A. International trade is a zero-sum gain where one nation's gain is another's loss.
B. Domestic industries are at risk when a country engages in free trade.
C. A country should maintain trade surplus to succeed in global trade.
D. Global production is greater with free trade than it is with restricted trade.
59. The theory of comparative advantage provides strong rationale for supporting the idea of ____.
A. business nationalism
B. free trade
C. protectionism
D. governmental intervention in trade
60. Diminishing returns to specialization occurs when ____.
A. each additional unit is produced with lesser number of laborers
B. a nation's gross domestic product declines for a few years
C. production possibility frontier appears as a rectangle
D. more units of resources are required to produce each additional unit
61. Which of the following is a major limitation of the simple Ricardian model of comparative advantage?

A. The model ignores the principle of diminishing marginal returns.

B. The model recommends excessive governmental intervention in trade.
C. The outcome of the model suggested by Ricardo is a zero-sum game.
D. The model is against the idea of engaging in free trade with nations.
62. What will happen, according to Paul Samuelson's critique, if a rich country enters into a free trade
agreement with a poor country?
A. Both the countries will incur losses due to the exchanges between them.
B. The productivity of the poor country will decline rapidly.
C. The poor country will rapidly improve its productivity.
D. Both the countries will garner benefits from the exchanges between them.
63. Which of the following arguments supports the Paul Samuelson's critique?
A. A rich country cannot produce net gains by engaging in free trade with a poor country.
B. Governmental intervention will reduce the likeliness of countries' economic success.
C. Countries should attempt to specialize in the production of goods and services.
D. Trade is a positive-sum game in which all countries that participate realize economic gains.
64. Which of the following terms refers to the extent to which a country is gifted with such resources as land,
labor, and capital?
A. Current accounts
B. Factor endowments
C. National balance
D. National accounts
65. Identify the theory that predicts that countries will export those goods that make intensive use of factors
that are locally abundant.
A. Theory of comparative advantage
B. Ricardo theory
C. New trade theory
D. Heckscher-Ohlin theory
66. Which of the following is the reason why most economists prefer Heckscher-Ohlin theory to Ricardo's
theory?
A. Heckscher-Ohlin stresses on the differences in productivity between nations.
B. Ricardo's theory considers factor endowments to describe national competitiveness.
C. Heckscher-Ohlin theory makes fewer simplifying assumptions.
D. Ricardo's theory considers the law of marginal returns.
67. Which of the following statements is true of the Leontief Paradox?
A. It shows an anomaly that occurs when a nation has high domestic demand for a product.
B. It explains the relationship between domestic demand and comparative advantage.
C. It disproved Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage.
D. It raised questions about the validity of the Heckscher-Ohlin theory.
68. Identify the theory that argues that advanced nations have an incentive to develop a new offering and
hence such nations always tend to create a good or service for the first time.
A. Absolute advantage
B. Ricardo
C. Product life-cycle
D. Heckscher-Ohlin
69. Country X, a poor country, invents a revolutionary electronic product. The country markets this new
product in other poor countries to garner large profits. This occurrence is against the idea of ____.
A. product life-cycle theory
B. Ricardo's theory
C. theory of absolute advantage
D. theory of comparative advantage
70. Which of the following is a major disadvantage of the product life-cycle theory introduced by Vernon?

A. The theory's arguments seem ethnocentric and increasingly dated.

B. The theory failed to explain the dominance of developed nations.
C. The theory applies only when a poor nation invents a new product.
D. The theory cannot be used to explain the production of luxury products.
71. Which of the following terms refers to the unit cost reductions associated with large sized outputs?
A. Absolute advantage of production
B. Economies of scale
C. Constant marginal returns
D. Diminishing marginal returns
72. Wal-Mart makes bulk purchases from its vendors and hence it is able to get better deals than its
competitors. This allows Wal-Mart to offer greater discounts to its customers. In this case, Wal-Mart
benefits from ____.
A. first-mover advantage
B. constant marginal returns
C. economies of scale
D. absolute advantage of production
73. Company A entered the production of office software before its competitors. Because of this, the
company's products are more familiar among and favored by customers. This situation exemplifies the
____.
A. first-mover advantage
B. diminishing marginal returns
C. economies of scale
D. constant marginal returns
74. Which of the following theories suggests that first mover advantage is significant in the export of a good?

A. Product life-cycle theory

B. Ricardo's theory
C. New trade theory
D. Theory of comparative advantage
75. Which of the following theories stress the role of luck, entrepreneurship, and innovation in the production
and export of a good or service by the firms in a country?
A. Product life-cycle theory
B. Ricardo's theory
C. Theory of comparative advantage
D. New trade theory
76. Which of the following is one of the four attributes present in Porter's diamond?
A. Economies of scale
B. Factor endowments
C. Structural innovation
D. Procedural innovation
77. Which of the following is an example of a basic factor that a nation will possess as proposed by Porter?

A. Communication infrastructure
B. Skilled labor
C. Natural resources
D. Technological knowledge
78. Which of the following factors, according to Porter's National Diamond, is most likely to give a country
competitive advantage over another country?
A. Natural resources
B. Climate
C. Skilled labor
D. Demographics
79. Porter argues that a nation's firms gain competitive advantage if ____.
A. their domestic consumers lack technical awareness
B. they function in a labor intensive market
C. the country has abundant supply of unskilled workers
D. their domestic consumers are demanding
80. Textile industry in a nation is characterized by vigorous domestic rivalry. Which of the following
observations of this nation's international competency is most likely to be true?
A. The nation will have access to such basic factors of textile industry as natural resources.
B. The nation's textile firms will have a competitive advantage in international trade.
C. The domestic customers of the textile firms will be less demanding.
D. The nation's textile industry will lack the advanced factors that are necessary to be internationally
competent.
81. A country's balance-of-payments accounts keep track of the ____.
A. basic factor endowments and advanced factor endowments that the nation possesses
B. payments to and receipts from other countries for a particular time period
C. income taxes paid by domestic firms and the spending on the firms
D. total value of taxes paid by domestic firms and the spending on the firms
82. Which of the following balance-of-payment accounts records one-time changes in the stock of assets?
A. Capital account
B. Current account
C. Financial account
D. Monetary account
83. Which of the following accounts records transactions that involve the purchase or sale of assets?
A. Capital account
B. Current account
C. Principal account
D. Financial account
84. When a country runs a current account deficit, what happens to the money that flows to other countries?

A. It is used to buy assets in the deficit country.

B. It is put into the receiving country's infrastructure.
C. It is converted to securities.
D. It is used to pay for social programs in the receiving country.
85. If foreigners suddenly reduced their investments in the United States, what would happen?
A. The value of the dollar on foreign exchange markets would increase.
B. The action would have no impact on the U.S. economy.
C. The foreigners would sell U.S. dollars for another currency.
D. The price of U.S. exports would increase.
86. Explain the concept of free trade.

87. How does the Heckscher-Ohlin theory explain international trade?

88. Explain how the theories of trade differ in terms of their support to governmental intervention.

89. What is the main principle of mercantilism?

90. Identify a major flaw associated with mercantilism.

91. Explain Smith's theory of absolute advantage.

92. Explain Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage.

93. What are the assumptions that we make when we discuss a simple Ricardian model to support free trade?
94. Briefly differentiate between constant returns to specialization and diminishing returns to
specialization.

95. Explain how the principle of diminishing returns weakens the Ricardian model.

96. Explain the dynamic gains that are generated by opening an economy to trade.

97. Explain the Paul Samuelson's critique.

98. What are factor endowments?

99. Briefly explain Vernon's product life-cycle theory.

100.Identify a major disadvantage of the product life-cycle theory.

101.What are the sources of economies of scale?

102.What are first-mover advantages?

103.Do you think a new trade theorist would stress the role of luck and entrepreneurship? Explain.

104.What are the four attributes that are discussed in Porter's Diamond?

105.Explain how the rivalry within an industry affects international competence.

 ch06 Key
1. TRUE

2. FALSE

3. FALSE

4. TRUE

5. FALSE

6. TRUE

7. TRUE

8. FALSE

9. FALSE

10. TRUE

11. TRUE

12. FALSE

13. TRUE

14. TRUE

15. TRUE

16. FALSE

17. FALSE

18. FALSE

19. FALSE

20. TRUE

21. TRUE

22. FALSE

23. FALSE

24. TRUE

25. FALSE

26. FALSE

27. TRUE

28. FALSE

29. FALSE

30. TRUE

31. TRUE

32. FALSE

33. TRUE

34. TRUE

35. FALSE

36. TRUE
37. TRUE

38. FALSE

39. TRUE

40. FALSE

41. TRUE

42. FALSE

43. TRUE

44. C

45. C

46. C

47. D

48. D

49. B

50. A

51. C

52. D

53. B

54. B

55. A

56. A

57. B

58. D

59. B

60. D

61. A

62. C

63. A

64. B

65. D

66. C

67. D

68. C

69. A

70. A

71. B

72. C

73. A

74. C
75. D

76. B

77. C

78. C

79. D

80. B

81. B

82. A

83. D

84. A

85. C

86. Free trade refers to a situation where a government does not attempt to influence through quotas or duties what its citizens can buy from
another country, or what they can produce and sell to another country. Smith, who proposed free trade, argued that the invisible hand of the market
mechanism, rather than government policy, should determine what a country imports and what it exports.

87. The Heckscher-Ohlin theory emphasizes the interplay between the proportions in which the factors of production (such as land, labor, and
capital) are available in different countries and the proportions in which they are needed for producing particular goods. This explanation rests on
the assumption that countries have varying endowments of the various factors of production.

88. The theories of Smith, Ricardo, and Heckscher-Ohlin form part of the case for unrestricted free trade. The argument for unrestricted free
trade is that both import controls and export incentives (such as subsidies) are self-defeating and result in wasted resources. Both the new trade
theory and Porter's theory of national competitive advantage can be interpreted as justifying some limited government intervention to support the
development of certain export-oriented industries.

89. The main tenet of mercantilism is that it is in a country's best interests to maintain a trade surplus, to export more than it imported. By doing so,
a country would accumulate gold and silver and, consequently, increase its national wealth, prestige, and power.

90. The flaw with mercantilism was that it viewed trade as a zero-sum game. A zero-sum game is one in which a gain by one country results in a
loss by another.

91.

92.

7. We have assumed away the effects of trade on income distribution within a country.
6. We have assumed that each country has a fixed stock of resources and that free trade does not change the efficiency with which a country uses
its resources.
5. We have assumed constant returns to scale.
4. We have assumed that resources can move freely from the production of one good to another within a country.
3. We have assumed away differences in the prices of resources in different countries.
2. We have assumed away transportation costs between countries.
93. 1. We have assumed a simple world in which there are only two countries and two goods.

94. By constant returns to specialization we mean the units of resources required to produce a good (cocoa or rice) are assumed to remain constant
no matter where one is on a country's production possibility frontier (PPF). Diminishing returns to specialization occur when more units of
resources are required to produce each additional unit.

95. Diminishing returns show that it is not feasible for a country to specialize to the degree suggested by the simple Ricardian model outlined
earlier. Diminishing returns to specialization suggest that the gains from specialization are likely to be exhausted before specialization is complete.

Second, free trade might also increase the efficiency with which a country uses its resources.
96. First, free trade might increase a country's stock of resources as increased supplies of labor and capital from abroad become available for use
within the country.

97.
98. Factor endowments refer to the extent to which a country is endowed with such resources as land, labor, and capital. Nations have varying
factor endowments, and different factor endowments explain differences in factor costs.

99.

100. Viewed from an Asian or European perspective, Vernon's argument that most new products are developed and introduced in the United States
seems ethnocentric and increasingly dated. This is a major disadvantage of the product life-cycle theory.

101. Economies of scale are unit cost reductions associated with a large scale of output. Economies of scale have a number of sources, including
the ability to spread fixed costs over a large volume, and the ability of large-volume producers to utilize specialized employees and equipment that
are more productive than less specialized employees and equipment.

102. First-mover advantages are the economic and strategic advantages that accrue to early entrants into an industry. The ability to capture scale
economies ahead of later entrants, and thus benefit from a lower cost structure, is an important first-mover advantage.

103. Perhaps the most contentious implication of the new trade theory is the argument that it generates for government intervention and strategic
trade policy. New trade theorists stress the role of luck, entrepreneurship, and innovation in giving firm first-mover advantages.

104.

105. Porter's second point is that there is a strong association between vigorous domestic rivalry and the creation and persistence of competitive
advantage in an industry. Vigorous domestic rivalry induces firms to look for ways to improve efficiency, which makes them better international
competitors. Domestic rivalry creates pressures to innovate, to improve quality, to reduce costs, and to invest in upgrading advanced factors. All
this helps to create world-class competitors.
International Business Competing in the Global Marketplace Hill 10th Edition Test Bank

ch06 Summary
Category # of Questions
AACSB: Analytic 105
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation 85
Blooms: Analyze 2
Blooms: Apply 4
Blooms: Remember 65
Blooms: Understand 34
Difficulty: 1 Easy 68
Difficulty: 2 Medium 36
Difficulty: 3 Hard 1
Hill - Chapter 06 105
Learning Objective: 06-01 Understand why nations trade with each other. 17
Learning Objective: 06-02 Summarize the different theories explaining trade flows between nations. 58
Learning Objective: 06- 23
03 Recognize why many economists believe that unrestricted free trade between nations will raise the economic welfare of countri
es that participate in a free trade system.
Learning Objective: 06- 4
04 Explain the arguments of those who maintain that government can play a proactive role in promoting national competitive adva
ntage in certain industries.
Learning Objective: 06-05 Understand the important implications that international trade theory holds for business practice. 3
Topic: Absolute Advantage 5
Topic: An Overview of Trade Theory 17
Topic: Balance-of-Payments Accounts 2
Topic: Comparative Advantage 25
Topic: Does the Current Account Deficit Matter? 2
Topic: Evaluating Porters Theory 1
Topic: Focus on Managerial Implications 3
Topic: Heckscher-Ohlin Theory 12
Topic: Implications of New Trade Theory 1
Topic: International Trade and the Balance of Payments 1
Topic: Mercantilism 8
Topic: National Competitive Advantage: Porters Diamond 7
Topic: New Trade Theory 13
Topic: The Product Life-Cycle Theory 8

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The stroller
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
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Title: The stroller

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE

STROLLER ***
THE STROLLER
 By MARGARET ST. CLAIR

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1947.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
All sorts of things come in on a space freighter. Even in the old days
grocers were always finding twenty-foot pythons curled cozily inside
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George Saunders, supercargo of the S.S. Trito, gave his wife a warm
kiss on the cheek.
"For Pete's sake," he hissed into her ear, "act like you're glad to see
me, can't you? The Old Man's watching us."
Marta Saunders hesitated a moment and then threw her plump body
into her husband's arms.
"Oooh, Georgie!" she squealed. "You sweet old thing! It's so
wonderful to see you again!"
"That's enough," George rumbled warningly. He was swaying a little
from the impact. "Don't want to overdo it. Let's get out of here."
They started over to the parking area of the spaceport, where their
'copter was.
"What's the matter?" Marta demanded as soon as they were out of
earshot of the ship. "What do you care what the captain thinks about
us?"
"Listen, Marta, the old fool's been riding me ever since we left
Aphrodition. Says I'm the most incompetent supercargo he's ever
had. Just before we docked today, he said he thought he'd take it up
with the union. If he does, you know what'll happen. Pynx said the
last time that if he got one more complaint about me he'd take the
case to the executive board. I'd lose my license, sure."
"Oh." Marta seemed unwillingly impressed. She got an atomizer out
of her handcase and began spraying quick-drying cosmi-lac over the
skin of her face and neck. "But what happened?" she asked an
instant later when the cosmetic had set. "Why's he so down on you?"
For a moment the fine-etched lines of irritation and petulance faded
from George Saunders' face, to be replaced by an expression of
honest perplexity.
"Marta, I—wait, here's the 'copter. I'll tell you about it after we get in.
And for the love of heaven, don't drop any pop bottles out of the
window the way you did the last time I was in port. Having the air
police after us would be the last straw, as far as my nerves are
concerned."
He slid into the driver's seat. Marta got two bottles of pop out of the
refrigerator, shoved straws into their necks, pulled a shelf out of the
paneling to hold one bottle at a convenient level under George's
nose, and began drinking out of the other herself.
"Well?" she asked after a couple of swallows.
George drank from his bottle before replying.
"It's the darnedest thing. I remember beginning to load number two
and three holds at Aphrodition, and I remember telling the longshore
leaderman to have the hatch covers put on again when the holds
were filled, but there're six or eight hours in there during the loading I
don't remember a single thing about. They're totally gone.
"Well, the way the ship handled at the take-off from Aphrodition, the
Old Man thought there must be something wrong, and when we
were out in space he went in for a look. Wow! I can see, sort of, why
he's sore. Those holds look like somebody'd stirred the things in 'em
up with a big stick. About a third of the cargo's ruined. The tongarus
have leaked all over those blasted lumigraphs, and—Well, the
insurance company is going to raise blue murder, and the owners
won't like it one little bit."
George licked his thin lips.
"What I want to know," he burst out, "is what happened to me? I
must have told the longshoremen to load the holds like that, but—
When we were two days out of Venus, I asked Sparks (he's had a
pre-medical course, and he's saving up the tuition for medical
school) to look me over. He gave me all the tests, dozens of them,
and finally told me there wasn't a thing wrong with me mentally or
physically except that I needed more rest. Rest, bushwah! I've been
sleeping ten hours a night, and I wake up tireder than when I went to
bed."
Marta studied him.
"You do look sort of tired," she observed. "Maybe you need some
vitor-ray treatments."
George ignored this comment.
"Of course, the Old Man's not such a bad guy," he said. "He never
said anything about that time I missed the ship at Marsport."
"You mean that time you were so drunk on soma? One of the times."
George gave an irritated shrug.
"Never mind that," he snapped. "I mentioned it because I asked him
to have dinner with us on Thursday, the day before we sail, and I
want you to have a real old-fashioned home-cooked meal for him.
Maybe I can soften him up. Have something nice for him. None of
this complete meal stuff out of the freezer—have something good.
Out of cans."
"You mean like my canned crab and mushroom casserole?"
"Um-hum. Have that. And what's that dessert you make with the
canned peaches and the soma? pêche flambée, or something. He
might like that."

George set the 'copter down neatly on the roof of their apartment
house.
"Remember," he said, "I've got to make a good impression on him.
Flatter him as much as you can, but use your head about it. And if
you get any kind of a chance to tell him about how reliable I usually
am, do it."
The days moved on toward Thursday. George continued to complain
of fatigue, and on Tuesday night Marta woke up shrieking with a
vague and horrible nightmare, but it was attributed to indigestion;
after a dose of antiacid, she went back to sleep. On Wednesday she
had her hallucination.
She was putting a bunch of old digests and tabloids away in the
closet in the living room when she came across the jacket George
had used four or five years ago when he went grotch hunting.
"George!" she called. "Oh, George! Can I throw your old gray jacket
away? It's full of moth holes."
"What are you yelling at me for?" George asked irritably from behind
her. He had been sitting in his study, which was only about five feet
distant from the closet, drinking soma. "I'm right here."
Marta came out of the closet and stared at him. One hand went to
her heart. The pallor of her heavy, sagging face showed through her
thick face lacquer as a muddy gray.
"Wha—I saw you go into the kitchen!" she said. "You were wearing
your brown suit. I was looking right at you, and you walked the length
of the living room and went into the kitchen and closed the door
behind you. That's why I yelled at you. You were wearing your brown
suit. You've got the blue one on now. You were wearing your brown
suit!"
"Shut up!" George said passionately. "Are you trying to drive me
crazy? I've been sitting right here all the time. What do you mean,
you saw me walk into the kitchen? You couldn't have. I've been
sitting right here all the time."
"But I saw you! You were wearing your brown suit."
"You imagined it!" her husband shrieked at her. "It's your imagination.
You shut up. What are you trying to do, get me so nervous the Old
Man will think I'm ready for the loony bin? You imagined it!"
Marta looked at him. She had to lick her lips twice before she could
answer.
"Yes. Yes, of course. That must be it. I imagined it."
George spent the rest of the day drinking soma and holding his
hands up before his eyes to see if they had stopped shaking. Marta
got a five-suit deck of cards out of the closet and played solitaire.
None of her games came out, but she was too distraught to realize
that she had left two of the cards inside their box.

Surprisingly, both George and Marta slept well. They awakened far
more cheerful than they had been the night before. Even their pre-
breakfast snapping at each other lacked its usual note of bitter
sincerity. When Marta left the apartment and started out to do her
shopping, she was humming under her breath.
The canned crab was easy enough to locate, but she had to go to
three stores before she could find the peaches and the mushrooms.
She ran them to earth at last in a little grocery on a side street. Just
as she was leaving it, her eye caught the flash of a red label on a low
shelf near the door and she triumphantly dug out two cans of tomato
soup.
"See what I got!" she said, showing her prize to George when she
got back home. "I guess I'm lucky or something. It's awfully hard to
find."
"Gosh!" George shut off the video to give her his full attention.
"That's wonderful. I happen to know the Old Man's crazy about it. His
mother used to have it all the time. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it
makes him change his mind completely about going to the union.
Marta, you're a smart girl."
Marta spent the rest of the day at the beauty shop, getting her hair
re-garnished with galoons and her face set. She wanted to make the
best possible impression on the captain. Around five-thirty she
began getting dinner—it doesn't take long to open cans—and an
hour or so later the Old Man (his name was Kauss) was chiming at
the door.
Kauss was definitely stiff at first. He greeted Saunders with resentful
formality and gave Marta the merest flash of a smile before his face
grew hard again. When the fragrant steam from the tureen of tomato
soup Marta was bringing in blew toward him, he relaxed somewhat,
and the salad of canned string beans, onions, lettuce and
mayonnaise softened him still more. By the time he had finished two
big helpings of Marta's crab casserole, it began to look like the job
was saved. He offered George a cigar and began telling him a long
story about what the little Martian hostess at the Silver Weetarete
had said to him.
Marta went out in the kitchen to fix the pêche flambée. She cut
sponge cake into neat rounds, spread disks of hard-frozen banana
ice cream over them, and crowned the structure on each dessert
plate with half of an enormous canned clingstone peach. From a
bottle she poured soma carefully over each of the peaches, set a bit
of paper to burning by pressing it against the element in the atomic
range, and then used the paper to ignite the soma on the peaches.
"George!" she called in the direction of the dining apse. "Oh, George,
honey, help me with the plates!"
She heard him come in. She turned at his step, ready to pick up the
plates, one in each hand, and give them to him.
He was wearing his brown suit.
But—he was wearing the green one today, wasn't he, because it was
the best suit he had and he wanted to impress the captain. His green
—his green—
George's face slipped down toward the fourth button on his coat. It
wavered, solidified, flowed back into place, and then slopped down
over his lapels once more. Suddenly it solidified into a sort of
tentacle. It came falteringly toward Marta, half-blind, but purposive.
Marta tried to scream. Her throat was too constricted by terror to let
out more than a mere thread of sound, but it had carrying power.
George and Kauss, out in the dining apse, heard it.
They came running in. Kauss was quick-witted. He picked up one of
the plates with the soma burning on it and hurled it straight at the
thing that was wearing George's clothes.
There was an explosion, so loud that the plexiglass in the windows
bulged outward for a moment, and then a bright, instant column of
flame. Then nothing. George's brown suit lay collapsed and empty
on the floor.
 There was an explosion so loud the plexiglass windows bulged
outward for a moment.

"It was wearing your suit, George," Marta said hysterically. She was
leaning back against the wall, looking faint and sick. "George, it was
wearing your suit. Oh, what was it, what was it, anyway?"
Kauss was looking at the debris on the floor. A peculiar expression,
half satisfaction, half private insight, hovered around the corners of
his lips.
"It was a Mocker, I think," he answered.
"A Mocker? What—?"
"Um-hum. You still find a few of them in the wilder parts of Venus.
They're parasitic—ah—entities, that feed on the life force, as well as
the flesh, of human beings. No doubt this one came aboard the ship
at Aphrodition, in that consignment of Fyella corymbs. They're
invisible most of the time, so of course we didn't suspect it."
"But how did it get here?" George demanded. "Why did it pick on
Marta as a victim?"
"Well, you see the usual way a Mocker works is to select someone
as a host, as a sort of base of operations, and then range out from
him whenever it wants to eat. For some reason, whenever it leaves
its host, it takes on his features and body and dresses itself in his
clothes. That's what happened here. One of the first signs that a
Mocker is taking hold is a spell of amnesia, and of course that's what
happened to you, Saunders, when we were taking on cargo at
Aphrodition, though I didn't realize it at the time.
"A Mocker doesn't usually kill its host directly, but it does draw on his
life force to keep itself going, and he usually complains of feeling
worn out and tired."
Kauss halted. Marta looked down at her husband's brown suit and
the ice cream slowly melting across it.
"Please, George, pick up that stuff before it ruins your suit
completely," she said automatically. And then, to Kauss, "But what
happened when you threw the plate at it? What happened? Oh, I
was so scared!"
"Yes, the Mockers are terrifying." Kauss agreed. He seemed to
square his broad shoulders. "However, at bottom they are
unintelligent—look at the stupidity of this one in attacking you when
your husband and I were in the next room—and they are really not
especially dangerous provided you know the defense against them.
"You see, their body structure, while based on the same elements as
our own, involves large quantities of free hydrogen between the body
cells. Hydrogen ignites in ordinary air with explosive force—the end
product's water—and when I threw that burning stuff at the creature,
the hydrogen in its tissues exploded. It blew up. There's probably a
good deal more water vapor in the air in this room than there was
before I got rid of the thing."
Kauss cleared his throat.
"There's another life form," he said with a faintly professional air,
"allied to the Mocker, but with important differences, which is far
more dangerous. That's the Stroller."
"The Stroller?" Marta asked. George had put his arm around her;
they were not an affectionate couple, but the moment seemed to call
for tender demonstration. "Why do they call it that?"
"No one knows, exactly. It seems to come from the creature's own
name for itself, for its fondness for taking long, long, walks."
Kauss turned the cigar in his mouth. He poked at the suit lying on the
floor with the toe of his shoe.
"What does it do?" Marta queried. "Why is it so terribly dangerous?"
"The Stroller doesn't hunt a host, like the Mocker," Kauss replied.
"Early in life it takes over the identity of some human being, and it
remains indistinguishable from a human being to any usual test. It's
so dangerous because there's absolutely no defense against it. No
free hydrogen in its tissues. It's indestructible."
"My!" Marta said. "Goodness!"
"It feeds, like the Mocker, on both the flesh and the life force of
human beings. Fortunately"—Kauss smiled—"it's very, very rare.
There are probably only a few Strollers in the entire solar system,
and they reproduce only at widely separated intervals."
Once more Kauss halted and poked absently at the clothing on the
floor with the toe of his boot.
"There's a peculiarity about their feeding habits," he said. "They'll go
for years without feeling any desire to eat their special food, and then
something will happen which makes them—greedy, and after that
they can't be stopped before they feed."
"Goodness!" Marta said again. She hid a nervous yawn behind her
hand. "George, get me a chair, will you? I'd like to sit down." To
Kauss, she said. "How did you find out all these things? You must
have made quite a study of the subject. Why, I've read several books
about Venus, and I listen to all the casts on the video about it, but I
never heard either of these creatures mentioned before. It seems to
be a sort of hobby of yours."
George pushed a kitchen chair out for her; she sat down with a sigh
of relief.
"Not a hobby," Kauss corrected gently.
His face began to waver and flow as the Mocker's had done. Then it
snapped back into place.
He licked his lips very delicately.
"You see, I'm a Stroller myself. And, somehow, I'm feeling that I'd like
to eat."
 *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
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