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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 theory about God does the author dismiss?
(a) That God is close to those who suffer.
(b) That God is a figment of human imagination.
(c) That God causes people to die.
(d) That God does not love human beings.

2. Of what emotion does grief remind the author?
(a) Acceptance.
(b) Hatred.
(c) Fear.
(d) Gratitude.

3. Who causes the author the most confusion?
(a) Himself.
(b) His sons.
(c) God.
(d) His friends.

4. Who is the main character in the book?
(a) H.
(b) God.
(c) The two sons.
(d) C. S. Lewis.

5. In what sense does the author feel isolated from his wife?
(a) He cannot enter into her experience of dying.
(b) She cannot come home from the hospital.
(c) He thinks she will not miss him.
(d) He cannot express his fears to her.

Short Answer Questions

1. When the author rereads his reflections, how does he react?

2. What does the author say combats the idea of God's mindless cruelty?

3. How does the author close the second chapter?

4. In Chapter Two, what does the author say is one more name for death?

5. What pseudonym did the author use?

Short Essay Questions

1. Does Lewis have trouble believing that God exists? Explain.

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

3. What was the most precious gift that marriage to H. had given Lewis? What is Lewis afraid will happen to that gift?

4. What was so striking and disturbing about Lewis's encounter with the man he had not seen for 10 years? What image comes to Lewis's mind about memories of H.?

5. What does Lewis find so horrifying about the man he encountered who was tending to his mother's grave? What does Lewis's reaction to the man mean for Lewis's feelings about H.?

6. H.'s absence is most evident to Lewis in his body. How does Lewis experience his own body in his grief?

7. What impresses Lewis about his realization of the man he had not seen for 10 years and Lewis's actual memories of the man?

8. What does Lewis realize is the problem with deciding to think less about himself and more about H.?

9. Lewis decided to record his reflections to get all his feelings and thoughts out. What does Lewis reflect might be a downside to his journal?

10. Why can Lewis not talk to his children about their mother?

(see the answer keys)

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