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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Stephen think about when he hears his name called?
(a) startled that he almost forgot his real name
(b) what a strange name he has
(c) the Greek myth of Daedalus and his son Icarus as prophecy
(d) Jesus calling his disciples to follow him

2. How does Stephen feel about the Virgin?
(a) She has chosen him to be her white knight.
(b) As a mother, she overlooks the sins of her children.
(c) Mary does not humiliate the sinner who approaches her.
(d) She can order her Son to do her will.

3. What does Stephen discover when he returns home from the director's office?
(a) They are all excited about his becoming a priest.
(b) Uncle Charles has died.
(c) His father is in the hospital.
(d) The family is being forced to move again.

4. To what does Stephen devote each different day of the week?
(a) to studying a different section of the catechism
(b) to a different religious facet or figure
(c) to recruiting new students to join him
(d) to physical exercise

5. How does Stephen react to the announcement of the rector?
(a) He is glad he will have a chance to reform.
(b) His attitude is one of boredom.
(c) He plans to be sick next Friday.
(d) His heart withers with fear.

6. How old is Stephen when he goes to confess his terrible sin?
(a) about 19
(b) only 16
(c) just 14
(d) already 21

7. What does the rector announce to the class?
(a) an early dismissal for the next few days
(b) tests for a scholarship program
(c) a retreat over the next few days
(d) extra credit for serving as altarboys

8. How does Stephen see his acts of devotion to God?
(a) as tally marks on a chalkboard
(b) as protection against prostitutes
(c) as notches in a heavenly belt
(d) as pressing keys of a divine cash register

9. At the first of the retreat, what helps to awaken Stephen's soul slightly?
(a) the topic of Pergatory
(b) the topics of death and judgment
(c) the topics of love and forgiveness
(d) the topic of a caring God

10. What suddenly awakens in Stephen as he revels in nature along the breakwater?
(a) a desire to return to the church
(b) a new found creativity
(c) a longing for security
(d) a better understanding of his family

11. How does Stephen see himself because of his frequent visits to the brothel?
(a) as a liberated Catholic
(b) as a man and no longer a boy
(c) sunk into a swamp of spiritual and bodily sloth
(d) as an addict who cannot help himself

12. What interpretation does Stephen give to his dream and visions of beasts in the field?
(a) That he will find salvation in a field.
(b) That he will reincarnate as a beast.
(c) That anyone looking at him will know his sins.
(d) That it is the hell awaiting him: bestial and foul.

13. What causes Stephen to recall how saints were tried again and again by sin?
(a) his ability to avoid temptation
(b) his many daily temptations
(c) his interest in the lives of saints
(d) his lingering guilt for his past

14. Although he purposefully enters the brothel, how does he feel later?
(a) wounded and shamed by much of what he perceives there
(b) justified that he acted only out of nature
(c) disturbed that he cannot save the workers there
(d) numbed as though he had not gone in

15. After dinner, why does Stephen march out of the house?
(a) to find a chapel in which to confess
(b) to find Emma and beg her forgiveness
(c) to go by the brothels to see if he can overcome his lusts
(d) to return to school and see Father Arnall

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the preacher define sin?

2. Who from the Bible are contrasted by the preacher?

3. When does the preacher say the soul of the sinner is judged, and the time for repentance is passed?

4. As he goes outside, what serves to increase his piety?

5. How does Stephen come to view all of creation?

(see the answer keys)

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