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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the author say one must transform to preserve the aesthetic in human beings?
(a) One must transform beauty into pain.
(b) One must transform outer trials into inner trials.
(c) One must transform suffering into joy.
(d) One must transform lemons into lemonade.

2. What is ostensibly one of the most respectable reasons for getting married according to the author?
(a) There is no respectable reason for getting married.
(b) To enoble one's character.
(c) To do penance.
(d) To test one's patience.

3. What is the only way the author claims he would ever wish to be in relation to his wife?
(a) Monogamous.
(b) Polygamous.
(c) Submissive.
(d) Dominant.

4. What are the excesses of the mystics according to the author of the letter?
(a) Self-tormenting and annihilation of the physical.
(b) Praying all day and all night.
(c) Drinking and drug taking.
(d) Attempting to help every person they come across.

5. What is the only thing for which the author prays to God with his whole heart?
(a) That God will give him the strength to move on after his wife stops loving him.
(b) That God will give him the patience to put up with his wife's nagging.
(c) That God will give him the judgement to know when his wife is lying.
(d) That God will give him the strength never to want to love another woman.

6. What does the author say first love is for him?
(a) A catch phrase.
(b) A password.
(c) A good word.
(d) A bad word.

7. What does the author say is the most intensive enjoyment?
(a) Drug taking.
(b) Sexual intercourse.
(c) Dreaming as if you would live forever.
(d) Clutching the enjoyment in the consciousness that it may vanish in the next moment.

8. What is the second subject Kierkegaard examines?
(a) Messages in bottles.
(b) Messages from yourself.
(c) Messages from God.
(d) Messages from distant cousins.

9. What does the author assert reflective love does?
(a) The author asserts reflective love does not exist.
(b) Hates itself.
(c) Renews itself.
(d) Consumes itself.

10. Who is the only person who has gained everything according to the author?
(a) The person who has gained everything in the world.
(b) The person who has laughed at the faults of another.
(c) The person who has lost everything in the world.
(d) The person who has laughed at his faults.

11. How does the author say the young man may best perceive the state that precedes first love?
(a) By recalling that love makes one fly.
(b) By recalling that love makes one lost.
(c) By recalling that love makes one feel quite good.
(d) By recalling that love makes one blind.

12. What is David unable to appreciate about the parable?
(a) David is unable to appreciate the hidden language of heaven in the parable.
(b) David is unable to appreciate how the parable applies to his own life.
(c) David is unable to appreciate the time Nathan takes to convey the parable.
(d) David is unable to appreciate Nathan's literary skill.

13. What is love according to the author?
(a) Self-giving.
(b) Elusive.
(c) Cruel.
(d) Selfish.

14. Which part of the wedding does the author find rather backward?
(a) The author thinks "as long as you both shall live" is a little extreme.
(b) The author thinks it incorrect that he is supposed to be in charge of his wife.
(c) The author thinks he ought to be able to have as many love affairs as he likes.
(d) The author thinks the man ought to wear the dress and the woman the tuxedo.

15. According to the author, what is the lifeblood of marriage?
(a) Frankness.
(b) Openness on a large scale.
(c) All of these.
(d) Uprightness.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does an individual become when his heart is open according to the author?

2. What is adversity according to the author?

3. What does the author say God's love is?

4. What system does the author say he observed while he was a guest in the home of a young married couple?

5. The author claims what kind of feelings toward his wife?

(see the answer keys)

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