View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. To what length would the author have gone if it could have cured H.'s cancer?
(a) Turned his back on God.
(b) Never seen her again.
(c) Died in her place.
(d) Become a priest.

2. What characterizes any changes that the author has experienced?
(a) He is not aware of them.
(b) They are unobservable.
(c) They are sudden.
(d) They are frightening.

3. What does the author think about people who are not offended by iconoclasm?
(a) Bless them.
(b) They are God's chosen people.
(c) They are fools.
(d) Curse them.

4. In Chapter Three, to what does the author compare grief?
(a) A veterinarian.
(b) A bomber circling round and round.
(c) A lost friendship.
(d) A game of Bridge.

5. In Chapter Three, what is the author finally able to do?
(a) Talk to his children about H.
(b) Tend to his affairs.
(c) Tidy up his house.
(d) Remember H. without forcing it.

6. What can the author's grief and memories never achieve?
(a) Giving the author comfort.
(b) Bringing H. back.
(c) Easing or aggravating H.'s past anguish.
(d) Restoring the author's faith in God.

7. What does the author think is the worst thing he could wish for H.?
(a) For her to have lived longer.
(b) For her to remain gone.
(c) For her to come back.
(d) For her to be with God.

8. Why could the author's records not achieve his intended purpose?
(a) Because the author cannot understand his own thoughts.
(b) Because sorrow is a process, not a state.
(c) Because the author stopped recording his thoughts.
(d) Because sorrow never ends.

9. What words of comfort take on new meaning for the author in the fourth chapter?
(a) "She is in Heaven now."
(b) "She is in God's hands."
(c) "Her suffering is ended."
(d) "Why have you forsaken me?"

10. About what is the author's remaining problem in Chapter Four?
(a) About how to live.
(b) About what the author can do.
(c) About feelings and motives.
(d) About what God should do.

11. Why does the author think that grief feels like suspense?
(a) One does not know what grief really means.
(b) One experiences frustrating habitual impulses.
(c) One never knows when grief will end.
(d) One does not know why grief is so painful.

12. For the author, what element does praise always contain?
(a) Gratitude.
(b) Awe.
(c) Humility.
(d) Joy.

13. What does the author conclude in Chapter Three was the purpose of his earlier rage against God?
(a) To strike back at God.
(b) To know the unknowable.
(c) To manipulate God.
(d) To help the author redefine his idea of God.

14. What does the author say cannot compare with physical pain?
(a) Death.
(b) Loneliness.
(c) Fear.
(d) Grief.

15. What does the author say is one of the miracles of love?
(a) The power of forgiveness.
(b) The gift of healing.
(c) The ability to explain.
(d) The power to see through enchantments.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does the author ask God to treat H. tenderly?

2. How long did "low-hung grey skies" hang over the author?

3. What do Bridge-players tell the author makes the game serious?

4. At the beginning of Chapter Four, what impossible result does the author admit he thought his records could achieve?

5. How does the author say that people react to someone in a room with them?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 586 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample