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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When had Miller and Doner met in France?
(a) 1931/32.
(b) 1925/26.
(c) 1941/42.
(d) 1935/36.

2. Who is Miller's favorite of the child painters in Big Sur?
(a) Brian Cooper.
(b) Timmy Conway.
(c) Butch Eames.
(d) Tasha Doner.

3. What denomination of preacher is Miller's favorite bootblack in Monterey?
(a) Pentecostal.
(b) Methodist.
(c) Baptist.
(d) Presbyterian.

4. A Basque girl visits Miller, freezing and starving, to ask his views on who?
(a) Hitler.
(b) Einstein.
(c) Kant.
(d) Nietzsche.

5. What does Miller use to wrap books in to send to friends?
(a) Book manuscripts.
(b) Newspaper articles.
(c) Failed paintings.
(d) Corn husks.

6. Since 1929, Miller has produced how many watercolors by Part 2, "Peace and Solitude: a Potpourri," Chapter 4?
(a) 1,000.
(b) 5,000.
(c) 2,000.
(d) 500.

7. Who is the octogenarian Miller often meets at the sulfur baths in Part 2, "Peace and Solitude: a Potpourri," Chapter 5?
(a) Oden Wharton.
(b) Emil White.
(c) Conrad Moricand.
(d) Jean Wharton.

8. What can improve bad painting, according to Miller?
(a) Good subject.
(b) Good framing.
(c) Good hanging.
(d) Good lighting.

9. What family's home is often mistaken for a cafe, so they accommodate by selling sandwiches?
(a) The White's.
(b) The Millers.
(c) The Whartons.
(d) The Muench's.

10. Who operates the upscale Nepenthe Restaurant and let their five children run wild without thought of discipline?
(a) The Fassetts.
(b) The Whartons.
(c) The Waltons.
(d) The Whites.

11. Miller writes in Part 1, "The Oranges of the Millennium," that he who comes to Big Sur must come with capable hands, a strong heart, and a sense of humor, and expect no _______.
(a) Help from neighbors.
(b) Things to come easy.
(c) Monetary gain.
(d) Modern amenities.

12. All of the animals and plants in Bosch's paintings share a magic _____.
(a) Tranquility.
(b) Beauty.
(c) Imagery.
(d) Super-reality.

13. Who swears that he hears mysterious music coming from Miller's cabin rather than from his own head?
(a) Neiman.
(b) White.
(c) Muench.
(d) Moricand.

14. A Dutch visitor upbraids Miller for clearing what instead of writing?
(a) A field of brush.
(b) His backyard.
(c) A septic tank.
(d) A forest.

15. What is Hieronymus Bosch's most widely known triptych?
(a) The Garden of Earthly Delights.
(b) The Cave of Pythagorus.
(c) The Three Marys.
(d) Venus.

Short Answer Questions

1. Miller asserts that few city dwellers can stand solitude, but communities built on _____ and detachment are inevitable in this destructive world.

2. Which Big Sur resident is a Dresden, Germany-born pianist, composer, and musical scholar?

3. Who begins a yearlong yarn about a superman-like character named Inch Connecticut?

4. Which author is a Russian at heart and cannot find a publisher for his novel, The Falling Asleep?

5. Miller writes that "one must find new ways of looking at things to see ______ undiminished by creation's flaws."

(see the answer keys)

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