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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who is Marcel Proust?
(a) A historian.
(b) An politician.
(c) The subject of De Botton's book.
(d) A singer.

2. How many months later did Proust die after responding to the newspaper's poll?
(a) 7 months.
(b) 5 months.
(c) 4 days.
(d) 4 months.

3. How old was Proust when he died?
(a) 41 years old.
(b) 51 years old.
(c) 53 years old.
(d) 65 years old.

4. What was Proust allergic to?
(a) Cologne and soap.
(b) Cologne.
(c) Soap.
(d) Soap and shaving cream.

5. Which of the following people were not mentioned to have responded to the newspaper's poll?
(a) Gertrude Stein.
(b) Berthe Bovy
(c) Madame Fraya.
(d) Henri Bordeaux.

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

7. How many meals a day did Proust have?
(a) 4 small ones.
(b) 2.
(c) 1.
(d) 3.

8. What is Proust legendary for?
(a) His long description of architecture.
(b) His elaborate and long descriptions.
(c) His companionship.
(d) His elaborate home.

9. What was Proust's response to the newspaper's poll?
(a) That people would begin to mend and repair estranged relationships.
(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 go into mass panic.

10. What did Proust die from?
(a) A headache.
(b) Cancer.
(c) A heart attack.
(d) A cold.

11. What did Proust have a fear of?
(a) Mice and cheese.
(b) Mice and heights.
(c) Heights and falling.
(d) Flying.

12. When was a brief bulletin written about a boy Proust knew murdering his mother?
(a) January 1907.
(b) January 1917.
(c) January 1909.
(d) February 1907.

13. Who is Albertine?
(a) Proust's mother.
(b) Proust's sister.
(c) Proust's girlfriend.
(d) A character in Proust's book.

14. How would great stories of literature become boring?
(a) If they did not include violence.
(b) If they omitted details and left only facts.
(c) If they were reduced to one sentence sound bites.
(d) If they did not include romance.

15. What question does De Botton ask after he discusses Proust's father's work?
(a) "If We Should Read"?
(b) "How Should We Read"?
(c) "To Read or Not to Read"?
(d) "What are the benefits of reading"?

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Proust believe a life examined is?

2. What type of physical attacks did Proust have growing up?

3. What was Proust's father's occupation?

4. What was the young man who murdered his mother named?

5. How did Proust feel in response to the article about the boy murdering his mother?

(see the answer keys)

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