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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did Barlowe describe the indigenous people he encountered?
(a) As simple and virtuous.
(b) As barbaric and cruel.
(c) As naïve and untrustworthy.
(d) As evil and plotting.

2. What did colonists find in America?
(a) Civilized people they could convert to Christianity.
(b) Infrastructure they could usurp from the natives.
(c) A desert they could transform into a garden.
(d) Virgin land.

3. What allowed America to preserve Jeffersonian ideals for 100 years after Jefferson wrote about them?
(a) Absence of foreign threats.
(b) Peace with natives.
(c) A frontier to expand into.
(d) Slow pace of technological development.

4. What other American literature does Marx say exemplifies the three-stage theme he identified in Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'?
(a) Morrison's Beloved.
(b) Twain's Huckleberry Finn.
(c) Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher.
(d) Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.

5. What kind of lifestyle does Marx say Americans want?
(a) Faster.
(b) More complex.
(c) More elegant.
(d) Simpler.

6. How do Americans express their sentimental pastoral ideal?
(a) By mining resources.
(b) By making green spaces.
(c) By building cities.
(d) By conserving.

7. What does Marx say is the central theme of pastoral literature?
(a) The imperative to transform nature.
(b) The futility of fighting nature.
(c) The desire to merge with nature.
(d) The interruption of woodland peace.

8. What is the third stage of life that Marx describes through Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'?
(a) Return to home.
(b) Return to childhood.
(c) Return to the city.
(d) Return to nature.

9. What would people live on, in Gonzalo's ideal world?
(a) Natives' produce.
(b) Imported grain.
(c) Nature's bounty.
(d) Money from exports.

10. Which leisure activity does Marx identify as revealing the influence of the sentimental pastoral ideal?
(a) Hiking.
(b) Theatre.
(c) Flying.
(d) Travel.

11. How was Hawthorne's description interrupted?
(a) By a blue jay.
(b) By a railroad whistle.
(c) By a merchant.
(d) By an Indian.

12. What did Jefferson ultimately conclude about industrialism?
(a) That it had to balance efficiencies with creating employment opportunities.
(b) That it had to be suppressed.
(c) That it had to be developed.
(d) That it had to be aligned with public virtues.

13. What is a consequence of the sentimental pastoral ideal?
(a) Relocation to the suburbs.
(b) Rail trails.
(c) Urbanization.
(d) Exploitation of resources.

14. What writer does Marx credit with beginning the theme of pastoralism in literature?
(a) Virgil.
(b) Homer.
(c) Hawthorne.
(d) Plato.

15. What was nature's role supposed to be in the nation's future, by Jefferson's time?
(a) Wilderness was going to redeem the nation's soul.
(b) Virgin territory was going absorb all the overflowing east-coast cities.
(c) Natural resources were going to be a source of wealth for generations.
(d) Agriculture was going to supply the nation's wealth.

Short Answer Questions

1. How had feelings about nature changed by Jefferson's time?

2. How did Arthur Barlowe describe America?

3. What does Marx say Beverly felt about the New World, by the end of his history?

4. When did a uniquely American pastoral image emerge?

5. What do Americans abandon when they are under the influence of the sentimental pastoral ideal?

(see the answer keys)

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