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 anticipate will be the young man's first objection to married life?
(a) The falseness of it all.
(b) The conventionality of it all.
(c) The monotony of it all.
(d) The cuteness of it all.

2. According to the author, of what can the mystic not be absolved?
(a) Harboring anger toward his brother.
(b) Harboring lust in his heart.
(c) A certain obtrusiveness in his relationship to God.
(d) A certain exclusivity in his relationship with others.

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

4. What kind of person does the author say the young man is like?
(a) A deaf person.
(b) A flying person.
(c) A dying person.
(d) A mute person.

5. What does the author say is another way to articulate the importance of living aesthetically?
(a) One must destroy life.
(b) One must find the truth.
(c) One must marry well.
(d) One must enjoy life.

6. Why does the author say the young man is afraid of continuity?
(a) Because he enjoys variety.
(b) Because it deprives him of the opportunity to deceive himself.
(c) Because the young man is afraid of everything.
(d) Because he had a frightening experience with continuity as a chil

7. What does the author say that the young man thinks life is?
(a) A masquerade.
(b) A fair.
(c) A trial.
(d) A lark.

8. How does the author describe the way of history?
(a) The author describes the way of history as being ultimately amusing.
(b) The author describes the way of history as being very long and arduous.
(c) The author describes the way of history as being only apparent many years after the fact.
(d) The author describes the way of history as being a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

9. What kind of energy does the author say a dying person has?
(a) Atomic energy.
(b) Light energy.
(c) Supranatural energy.
(d) Not very much energy at all.

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

11. What concept does the author of the letter introduce at the beginning of this section?
(a) The concept of relativity.
(b) The concept of moral accountability.
(c) The concept of Either/Or.
(d) The concept of bilocation.

12. Why must a captain of a ship make swift decisions about direction changes?
(a) Because while the captain is deciding, the ship continues forward at a constant velocity.
(b) Because the captain constantly changes his mind.
(c) Because the captain's ship is old and takes along time to adjust its course.
(d) Because the captain's crew is rather inept.

13. What "humble view" does the author say he presents to the young man?
(a) What it is to prepare and debate.
(b) What it is to hate and destroy.
(c) What it is to study and perform.
(d) What it is to choose and repent.

14. What is the married man's most dangerous enemy according to the author?
(a) His wife's suitors.
(b) His wife.
(c) Time.
(d) His conscience.

15. What does the author claim he has never passed himself off as?
(a) A cobbler.
(b) A cabinet maker.
(c) A philosopher.
(d) A poet.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. How fast do philosophers hasten to the past according to the author?

3. What does the author say art and poetry do for us?

4. What does the author say cannot survive in the young man's thought?

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 687 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample