View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the author urge the young man to do with his "droll fancies"?
(a) Keep them.
(b) Pass them on to the object of his affection.
(c) Ignore them.
(d) Rid himself of them.

2. Why do the author's two Englishmen travel to Arabia?
(a) To visit Mecca.
(b) To smoke tobacco.
(c) To purchase horses.
(d) To discuss philosophy.

3. What is the secret horror of every person who lives aethically, according to the author?
(a) Tripping.
(b) Living freely.
(c) Sinning.
(d) Despairing.

4. About what emperor does the author go on at length?
(a) Constantine.
(b) Julius Caesar.
(c) Nero.
(d) Augustus Caesar.

5. What path does nature take according to the author?
(a) The widest path.
(b) The hilliest path.
(c) The longest path.
(d) The shortest path.

6. What does the author say cannot survive in the young man's thought?
(a) The infinite.
(b) Ethics.
(c) Morals.
(d) The finite.

7. What does the author say it is easy to do?
(a) Deceive oneself.
(b) Have a happy marriage.
(c) Walk a hundred miles.
(d) Levitate.

8. What is the risk in despairing over something particular according to the author?
(a) That one's despair will be totally overwhelming.
(b) That one will forget one's obligation to one's wife.
(c) That one's despair will not be authentic and deep.
(d) That one will be distracted from the joy of sunsets.

9. According to the author how does philosophy view history?
(a) Philosophy sees history under the category of mathematics.
(b) Philosophy sees history under the category of freedom.
(c) Philosophy sees history under the category of meteorology.
(d) Philosophy sees history under the category of necessity.

10. Who does the author propose might come to the young man for advice?
(a) A brilliant youth, even younger than he.
(b) A coy milkmaid.
(c) A brazenly licentious priest.
(d) The author proposes no one would come to the young man for advice.

11. In what does the author say the young man is prolific?
(a) In composing symphonies.
(b) In writing novels.
(c) In coining phrases of his favorite conclusions.
(d) In writing volumes of poetry.

12. On the whole, what does the author say it is to choose?
(a) A polite term for selfishness.
(b) An asinine term for the hypothetical.
(c) A stringent term for the ethical.
(d) A ridiculous term for duty.

13. The author accuses the young man of hardening his mind to what?
(a) Lusting after women day and night.
(b) Frittering away his intellectual life.
(c) The existence of right and wrong.
(d) To interpret all existence in aesthetic categories.

14. What history does the author say proves to be incommensurable for poetry?
(a) Danish history.
(b) World history.
(c) Religious history.
(d) Inner history.

15. What does the author say is "the last to be satisfied"?
(a) The stomach.
(b) The heart.
(c) The eye.
(d) The ear.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the author call the young man's intellectual capacities?

2. Why does the author say he fights for Either/Or in his letter to the young man?

3. What does the author say happens to people who deceive others for an extended period?

4. According to the author, reflection never reaches beyond what?

5. What does the author accuse the young man of having become?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 537 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample