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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. How does the author describe the way of history?
(a) The author describes the way of history as being a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
(b) The author describes the way of history as being ultimately amusing.
(c) The author describes the way of history as being very long and arduous.
(d) The author describes the way of history as being only apparent many years after the fact.

2. What is everyone born with a penchant for according to the author?
(a) Climbing hills.
(b) Descending hills.
(c) Painting pictures.
(d) Singing songs.

3. What does the author say are the spheres proper to thought?
(a) All of these.
(b) Nature.
(c) Logic.
(d) History.

4. Why do the author's two Englishmen travel to Arabia?
(a) To purchase horses.
(b) To visit Mecca.
(c) To discuss philosophy.
(d) To smoke tobacco.

5. Why does the author say he fights for Either/Or in his letter to the young man?
(a) For fidelity.
(b) For freedom.
(c) For beauty.
(d) For money.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the author say is the young man's position in relation to philosophy?

2. What capacity of the soul does the author say is missing in the young man?

3. What happens to choice if one admits meditation according to the author?

4. If the the young man fails his wife, who does the author say will punish him?

5. Why does the author say it seems superfluous to tell the young man what is aesthetic?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the author dislike about philosophy?

2. How does the author define philosophy and what does he appreciate about it?

3. What does the author say the young man proposes is the definition of a hero? What does the author encourage the young man to suppose instead?

4. What risk does the author say one runs when one despairs about something in particular?

5. Explain how the author uses the metaphor of a ship captain to explain Either/Or.

6. What does the author assert is the mystic's error?

7. What does the author write about "the Moment"?

8. How may talent become a hindrance to the enjoyment of life, according to the author?

9. What are the advantages of the ethical theory of talent as opposed to the aesthetic theory of talent?

10. What does the author say is more important than choosing the right thing?

(see the answer keys)

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