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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 subject do the excerpts of H.G. Wells and Charles Dickens that Forster compares in the Introduction both describe?
(a) Weddings.
(b) Christmas.
(c) Love.
(d) Funerals.

2. What is the silliest way Forster believes there is to classify novels?
(a) Subject matter.
(b) Time period.
(c) Genre.
(d) Author's names.

3. Who is the second hypothetical person to whom Forster poses the question, "What does a novel do?"
(a) A zookeeper.
(b) A golfer.
(c) A writer.
(d) A bus driver.

4. Forster's third set of excerpts in the Introduction are from Virgina Woolf and _______________.
(a) Sir Walter Scott.
(b) Laurence Sterne.
(c) Samuel Richardson.
(d) Henry James.

5. Where is Moll sent after she is caught stealing?
(a) Florida.
(b) Cuba.
(c) Australia.
(d) Virginia.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which author has numerous flat characters who can express themselves in a single sentence?

2. Forster considers what to be the enemy when studying literature?

3. Storytelling is the ____________ aspect of the novel.

4. Who tries to abolish time in a novel according to Forster?

5. The test of a round character is whether it is capable of _________ the reader.

Short Essay Questions

1. What is striking about the funerals described in the excerpts by H.G. Wells and Charles Dickens?

2. What are the two sides of a human being as described by the French critic Alain?

3. What is one of the reasons that love is "unduly prominent" in novels, according to Forster?

4. What does Forster believe to be the flaws in Sir Walter Scott's writing?

5. How does Forster define the novel in its most basic terms?

6. According to Forster, what does a good novel do?

7. What image does Forster ask his audience to think of so as not to consider literature in the "stream of time"?

8. As defined by Forster, when is a character in a novel real?

9. What does Forster believe is part of the genius of Dickens' characters?

10. What commonality does Forster see between the writings of Henry James and Samuel Richardson?

(see the answer keys)

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