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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why is the lover cautious when the loved object complains of the lover's rival?
(a) The lover does not want to be a gossip.
(b) The lover is afraid of revealing his friendship with the rival.
(c) The lover could end up in the rival's place some day.
(d) The lover is too submissive to stand up to the other.

2. According to this section in the text, what is the best reaction to the other's suffering?
(a) Compassion, moral support, and physical contact.
(b) Sympathy, delicacy, and reassurance.
(c) Detachment, delicacy, and compassion.
(d) Empathy, advice, and affection.

3. What is the slightly longer characterization the author uses to describe the different sections of the book?
(a) Figments of the imagination.
(b) Fragments of discourse.
(c) Lists of terms.
(d) Literary musings.

4. According to the author, how does the world frequently characterize love incorrectly?
(a) As the ultimate goal for every single person.
(b) As impossible, and therefore more desirable.
(c) As an either/or situation: a matter of success or failure, victory or defeat.
(d) As a compromise that must be endured for the sake of society.

5. When the narrator states that "the other whom I love...is atopos," what does he mean?
(a) The other is unobtainable.
(b) The other is a stereotype.
(c) The other is unique.
(d) The other is unfaithful.

6. Which of the following topics describes the theme of "The Absent One/Absence?"
(a) The lover's lack of concern for the absent love object.
(b) The role of absence in film narratives.
(c) A process whereby the lover's absence is transformed into an abandonment.
(d) The inner motivations for leaving a relationship.

7. What does the "scenography of waiting" refer to?
(a) A traumatic scene from the narrator's childhood that he rehearses mentally.
(b) A drama in which the narrator goes through the different stages of waiting and their associated actions and emotions.
(c) A French opera.
(d) A book written by Schönberg that deals with waiting.

8. In "Agony," what forms does the feeling discussed by the author take?
(a) Impatience and irritability.
(b) Shame in front of others.
(c) Sadness and despondency.
(d) Jealousy and fear of injury and abandonment.

9. In the section entitled, "I am engulfed, I succumb," the author discusses which of the following desires?
(a) To lose oneself in a good story.
(b) To fall into a deep sleep.
(c) To be embraced by one's lover.
(d) To be overcome with emotion or to swoon.

10. What happens when one speaks of love in the objective?
(a) "You" becomes "he" or "she" or "one."
(b) "He" or "she" becomes "you."
(c) "One" becomes "I."
(d) "You" becomes "it."

11. According to the author, what happens to language the more one becomes enamored of a specific person?
(a) The lover's language becomes closed off and limited.
(b) The lover seeks to escape the constraints of language.
(c) Language becomes irrelevant.
(d) The lover's language becomes expansive and creative.

12. The lover compares his gaze on the other's body to which of the following things?
(a) To children who disassemble a clock to see what time is.
(b) To someone reading a newspaper.
(c) To a prisoner looking out the window.
(d) To a scientist looking through a microscope.

13. In the section called "Talking," how does the lover's discourse change when the amorous subject speaks about love?
(a) From a personal declaration of love to an abstract philosophical discourse about love.
(b) From an abstract philosophical discourse about love to a personal declaration of love.
(c) From a declaration of love to a renouncement of love.
(d) From a rejection of love to a a declaration of love.

14. How is the heart described in the section entitled "The Heart?"
(a) As a symbol of fertility.
(b) As a tired metaphor for romance.
(c) As a gift-object and an organ of desire.
(d) As a pretext for intimacy.

15. In Dark Glasses/To Hide, what main subject does the author address?
(a) The lover wonders whether he should declare his love.
(b) The lover disguises his distrust of the other.
(c) The lover wonders to what degree he should conceal the turbulence of his passions.
(d) The lover derides the other's secretiveness.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "To Be Ascetic," how does the narrator's asceticism take shape?

2. The section entitled "Catastrophe" refers to two systems of despair. What are they?

3. What effect does the other's atopia have on language?

4. How does the lover respond to accidental contact with the desired being in the section entitled "When my finger accidentally..."?

5. What language does the word "atopos" come from?

(see the answer keys)

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