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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. "Intractable/Affirmation" discusses which of the following themes?
(a) How love makes the lover more rational.
(b) How the lover affirms love as a value against and despite its devaluation.
(c) The lover's eventual rejection of love as a value.
(d) Love as an expression of self-sacrifice.

2. 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 unique.
(c) The other is unfaithful.
(d) The other is a stereotype.

3. What is the feeling that the author refers to in the section entitled "Agony?"
(a) Anxiety.
(b) Anger.
(c) Embarrassment.
(d) Boredom.

4. In this section, how is the term "karma" defined?
(a) As causality, which the lover wishes to escape from.
(b) As nirvana, which the lover hopes to attain.
(c) As suffering, which the lover hopes to inflict on the other.
(d) As nothingness, which the lover hopes to attain.

5. The term "atopos" is associated with which of the following figures?
(a) Socrates.
(b) Meno.
(c) Plato.
(d) Nietzsche.

6. In "What is to be done?" which of the following describes the behavior of the amorous subject?
(a) Everything is over-interpreted and spontaneity becomes impossible.
(b) Awkwardly silent.
(c) Needy.
(d) Self-indulgent with little concern for others' feelings.

7. What effect does the other's atopia have on language?
(a) It inspires the lover to new and better descriptions of the other.
(b) It makes language indecisive and false; the other cannot be qualified.
(c) It makes the lover take refuge in falsehoods.
(d) It does not have any effect on language.

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

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

10. 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) Language becomes irrelevant.
(c) The lover's language becomes expansive and creative.
(d) The lover seeks to escape the constraints of language.

11. In the section entitled "Waiting," which of the following processes is described?
(a) A growing fear of the death of the beloved during his absence.
(b) A growing anxiety and loss of all sense of proportion while waiting for the other.
(c) Making lists of the other's faults while waiting for him.
(d) An increasing apathy regarding the other's absence.

12. In the section on absence, to what early experience does the author link the subject's feelings about the absent lover?
(a) To the mother's absence.
(b) To the child's need for approval.
(c) To the subject's first disappointment in love.
(d) To the father's absence.

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

14. When does this desire affect the subject?
(a) When the subject is in a state of raw panic.
(b) When the subject is irritated.
(c) When the subject is bored.
(d) When the subject is in a state of despair or fulfillment.

15. "The Other's Body" divides the other's body into two parts: what are they?
(a) The body proper such as the skin, eyes, and the voice.
(b) The imagined body and the actual body.
(c) Flesh and spirit.
(d) The emotional and the physical.

Short Answer Questions

1. In the same section, what does the narrator refer to when he says: "I am an amputee who still feels pain in his missing leg?"

2. What are the advantages of the act of annulment?

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

4. In the section on agony, to what does the narrator compare the steady progress of the emotional state he experiences?

5. In this same section, the author invokes a scene involving a letter. Which of the following describes this scene?

(see the answer keys)

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