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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What cultural practice did Ramanujan insist on, in Kanigel's account?
(a) Vegetarianism.
(b) Daily prayers.
(c) Animal sacrifice.
(d) Visiting Hindu shrines.

2. What did the divergent series 1+2+3+4+5... add up to in Ramanujan's notebooks?
(a) 7.
(b) Infinity.
(c) 39.
(d) -1/12.

3. What did Hardy and his friends arrange for Ramanujan?
(a) A bureaucratic appointment.
(b) A teaching position.
(c) A research position.
(d) A sinecure.

4. What was the result of Ramanujan clinging to his cultural practices?
(a) He taught English students how to cook Indian dishes.
(b) He remained an outsider.
(c) He generated fear and hostility in those around him.
(d) He brought Indian culture to English intellectuals.

5. What does Kanigel say was Ramanujan's greatest talent?
(a) His perception.
(b) His associative abilities.
(c) His calculations.
(d) His intuition.

6. Who was Neville?
(a) Ramanujan's Tutor.
(b) The dean at the university where Ramanujan was doing his research.
(c) Ramanujan's ambassador to Hardy.
(d) Hardy's ambassador to Ramanujan.

7. How much of Ramanujan's work did Hardy believe was sound and original?
(a) One to two thirds.
(b) Half to three quarters.
(c) Almost all of it.
(d) Five to ten percent.

8. What did Ramanujan petition Cambridge for?
(a) The right to return.
(b) Publication.
(c) A stipend.
(d) An assistant.

9. What did Littlewood and Hardy see as mathematically important?
(a) Ramanujan's nested square roots.
(b) Ramanujan's infinite series.
(c) Ramanujan's detailed proofs.
(d) Ramanujan's use of irrational numbers.

10. Who developed an exact solution to the question of partitions?
(a) Euler.
(b) Ramanujan.
(c) Later mathematicians.
(d) Hardy.

11. What was the doctor's prescription for Ramanujan's condition?
(a) Physical activity.
(b) Radiation.
(c) Surgery.
(d) Rest and care.

12. What are partitions in math?
(a) The distinctions between prime numbers and other numbers.
(b) The number of ways to arrive at a number.
(c) The divisions between theorems and proofs.
(d) The separation between rational and irrational numbers.

13. How does Kanigel describe Ramanujan's dress?
(a) English dress.
(b) A hybrid of Indian and English.
(c) A unique brand of slovenliness all his own.
(d) Traditional Indian dress.

14. How do people account for Ramanujan's self-assessment?
(a) Ramanujan's naïveté.
(b) Ramanujan's arrogance.
(c) Hardy's coldness.
(d) Overwork.

15. What did Hardy and Neville nominate Ramanujan to become?
(a) A fellow at Trinity College.
(b) A graduate student at Trinity.
(c) A teacher at King's College.
(d) A dean at Oriel College.

Short Answer Questions

1. What conflict did Ramanujan return to?

2. Who is NOT included in the list of people who have benefited from Ramanujan's work, in Kanigel's account?

3. When did Ramanujan die?

4. What aspect of the English does Kanigel say affected Ramanujan?

5. How does Kanigel characterize Ramanujan's theorems and formulas?

(see the answer keys)

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