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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 author say is human history's cruel joke?
(a) That there is no after life.
(b) That this life makes no sense.
(c) That God is hateful.
(d) That there is no promise in Jesus's life and death.

2. How does God seem to respond to the author's agony?
(a) With silence.
(b) With a feeling that Lewis' wife continued to live.
(c) With the gift of comfort.
(d) With a sense of nearness to Lewis.

3. Rather than relying upon his memory of his wife, what does the author want?
(a) To dwell on her sweetness.
(b) For God to return her.
(c) To forget she ever lived.
(d) To replace her with a new partner.

4. What was the difference between the author's and H.'s sufferings?
(a) They were very different experiences.
(b) One of them did not suffer at all.
(c) The experiences changed all the time without warning.
(d) There was no difference.

5. By the end of the second chapter, what does the author think about human contemplation of God?
(a) If humans think hard enough, they can understand God.
(b) Human beings should not try to accurately describe God.
(c) It is the highest human endeavor.
(d) God guides human thought along the right course.

Short Answer Questions

1. In the first chapter, who does the author say had died several years ago?

2. According to the author, what would happen if two lovers died at the exact some moment?

3. How does the author decide he must consider death?

4. Where does the author feel his loss the most?

5. Of what disease did H. die?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do consoling people tell Lewis about where H. is after her death? How does Lewis interpret these attempts to console him?

2. What does Lewis think that he can say about H.'s continuing? Why is it important for Lewis to work out the issue of where H. is?

3. How does Lewis think people react when they encounter him?

4. What is one aspect of the supposed consolation that H. continues that troubles Lewis?

5. How does Lewis try to convince himself that he does not mind H.'s death? Provide examples of the things that Lewis tells himself.

6. Why does Lewis think that grief is like fear? Describe the ways in which Lewis experiences fear.

7. What is it about cancer that prompts some of Lewis' reflections?

8. Describe some people whom Lewis thinks are having negative reactions to Lewis and his grief?

9. Why is Lewis "appalled" when he read what he has written in the first chapter?

10. In what ways does Lewis reflect a mother who has lost her child can and cannot find comfort? For what does a mother mourn in that situation?

(see the answer keys)

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