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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. As revealed in Chapter Two, what is the secret of mysticism?
(a) Mysticism leads to God, who has the answers.
(b) A man can try to understand life through the supernatural.
(c) A man can understand life through things he does not understand.
(d) Mysticism provides a lens for understanding the supernatural.

2. How does Chesterton end Chapter One?
(a) Exhorting the reader to examine his definition of "orthodoxy."
(b) Saying that he will write another book if challenged.
(c) Claiming to prove every premise to his thesis.
(d) Beginning to lay the foundation of Christian-Judeo history.

3. What does Chesterton name as the chief pleasure?
(a) Surprise.
(b) Security.
(c) Money.
(d) Love.

4. At the beginning of Chapter III, The Suicide of Thought, why does Chesterton say that the modern world is too good?
(a) It has little conception of vice.
(b) Its ethics are better than they used to be.
(c) It deals well with evil.
(d) It is full of wasted virtues.

5. What does evolution destroy, according to Chesterton?
(a) Science.
(b) Reason.
(c) Modern intelligence.
(d) Religion.

6. In Chapter III, The Suicide of Thought, how does a test of happiness compare to a test of the will?
(a) Happiness cannot truly be tested.
(b) The first is a true test but the second is not.
(c) A test of happiness will always trump.
(d) They both lead to the same end.

7. What is the title of the essay that H. G. Wells wrote on skepticism?
(a) The Creeds and Hierarchies.
(b) Understanding the Skeptical Mind.
(c) Doubts of the Instrument.
(d) Skepticism from a Philosophical Viewpoint.

8. What does Bernard Shaw assert about the idea of choice?
(a) Choice has replaced free will as the standard of desire in a man's life.
(b) Choice was an effective contrivance in past ages but not in the modern age.
(c) Choice has replaced happiness as the standard of desire in a man's life.
(d) Choice has little effect in a man's philosophical thinking.

9. When materialism leads a man to fatalism, what does it also accomplish, according to Chesterton?
(a) It also destroys his sense of hope.
(b) It acts as a liberating force.
(c) It cripples his free will.
(d) It also destroys his humanity.

10. How does Chesterton define tradition in political terms?
(a) Defining the past as an oligarchy.
(b) Allowing one's ancestors to vote.
(c) Thinking of one's ancestors as kings.
(d) Defining the past as a democracy that is long gone.

11. What does Chesterton say concerning the boundaries of the will?
(a) The will frees a man.
(b) The will has boundaries only if it is not a free action.
(c) The will is limiting to the man.
(d) The will defines a man's actions fully.

12. How does H. G. Wells perceive categories of things?
(a) He notes five categories.
(b) He perceives twelve categories.
(c) He subdivides things into tiny categories.
(d) He says categories do not exist.

13. Why does Chesterton admire Joan of Arc?
(a) She is everything that he admired.
(b) She turned her fright into courage, when faced with battle.
(c) She is an icon of Christianity and courage.
(d) She provides courage to the French.

14. Why does Chesterton assert that tall towers are an example of humility?
(a) They connect a man directly to God, who is greater.
(b) A man must be small to appreciate their size.
(c) They speak to man's sense of accomplishment.
(d) They remind man how far he still must go.

15. In the middle of Chapter One, why does Chesterton say this book is a joke on him?
(a) He went looking for something that is already known.
(b) He wrote it so he could win a bet.
(c) He does not take its content seriously.
(d) No one around him agrees with his argument.

Short Answer Questions

1. "[T]he happiness depended on not doing something which you could at any moment do and which, very often, it was not obvious why you should not do." (Chesterton 2000, pg 215) What is Chesterton's opinion of this condition for happiness?

2. How does the book look in relation to Chesterton, according to the author himself?

3. What is the title of Chapter I?

4. What document does Chesterton refer to by the word "orthodoxy"?

5. What words does Chesterton prefer when referring to nature?

(see the answer keys)

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