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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did Proust feel in response to the article about the boy murdering his mother?
(a) Disturbed.
(b) Sick.
(c) Unaffected.
(d) Depressed.

2. What was Proust's response to the newspaper's poll?
(a) That people would go into mass panic.
(b) That knowledge of imminent death would cause humans to apprciate life more fully.
(c) That people's social inhibitions would fall away.
(d) That people would begin to mend and repair estranged relationships.

3. In response to the newspaper's poll, what did one person think would happen to people's inhibitions?
(a) People would become more inhibited.
(b) People would become less inhibited.
(c) Nothing was said about social inhibitions in this text.
(d) All social inhibitions would utterly fall away.

4. What did Proust's mother's actions cause Proust to do?
(a) Be annoying.
(b) Be insecure.
(c) Be loving.
(d) Be clingy and helpless.

5. What does Proust believe a life examined is?
(a) A life well lived.
(b) A life worthless.
(c) A waste of time.
(d) Essential to everyone.

6. Who did Proust tell that he wanted his book to do for people what his father did for people?
(a) His sister.
(b) His maid.
(c) His doctor.
(d) His best friend.

7. What is the finger placing ability, according to De Botton?
(a) The ability to point in any direction and find comfort in it.
(b) An increase in our own perceptive powers to discover something in us from our reading.
(c) The ability to understand the power of knowledge.
(d) Being able to locate where you know something or someone.

8. What was Proust rarely exposed to?
(a) Fresh air.
(b) People.
(c) Public places.
(d) Women.

9. What was Proust's perception of his own sexuality?
(a) He was narcissistic.
(b) He self loved.
(c) He was numb to himself.
(d) He self loathed.

10. What did Proust explain after the article was written about the young boy who murdered his mom.
(a) Henry's cause of death.
(b) Henry's state of mind.
(c) Henri's state of mind.
(d) Henri's cause of death.

11. How did Proust's friends react to Proust's relationship with his mother?
(a) They were bothered.
(b) They were uncomfortable.
(c) They were annoyed.
(d) They did not care.

12. What was Proust considered to be in the 1920s?
(a) He was an aspiring author.
(b) A great author.
(c) A bonafide celebrity.
(d) He was an aspiring lawyer.

13. What was the young man who murdered his mother named?
(a) Henry von Blarenberg.
(b) Henry von Schlotter.
(c) Henri van Schlotter.
(d) Henri van Blarenberge.

14. Why would Proust sometimes examine a mundane train timetable?
(a) To keep his brain active.
(b) To fall asleep.
(c) To go crosseyed.
(d) To keep learning.

15. What did Proust repress in his life?
(a) Intimate desire.
(b) Companionship.
(c) Travels.
(d) Sexual desire.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was Proust's view towards romance like?

2. Who is Marquis de Lau?

3. What did Proust refuse from the doctors on his deathbed?

4. What would Proust write to his mother and tell her about?

5. Who is Kate?

(see the answer keys)

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