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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What does De Botton say to suggest it makes sense for De Botton to become an author?
(a) He was an English teacher.
(b) He loved books.
(c) His family was full of writers.
(d) He loved to read.

3. How was Proust's personal life at odds with the answer he gave to the newspaper's question?
(a) He never fell in love.
(b) He was a recluse himself.
(c) He never traveled to India.
(d) He never went to the Louvre.

4. What were Proust's main passions?
(a) Law and medicine.
(b) Writing and reading.
(c) Reading and analyzing.
(d) Literature and writing.

5. Who does De Botton wonder can be separated from his or her work in Chapter 4?
(a) Musicians.
(b) Writers.
(c) Singers.
(d) Artists.

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

7. What was the title of Proust's father's most successful book?
(a) "Elements to Good Health".
(b) "Promotions to Hygiene".
(c) "Elements of Hygiene".
(d) "Hygiene Premises".

8. What was Proust's father in particularly concerned with?
(a) Public broadcasting.
(b) Public learning.
(c) Public sanitation.
(d) Public intellect.

9. How does De Botton believe Proust felt about his father?
(a) He was inspiring.
(b) He was intimidated.
(c) He was motivating.
(d) He was smart.

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

11. What year did Proust write his novel that gave him international acclaim?
(a) 1915.
(b) 1919.
(c) 1914.
(d) 1913.

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

13. Who wrote Pensees?
(a) Blois Pasture.
(b) Blaise Pascal.
(c) Pascal Blay.
(d) Blaze Pascal.

14. 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.

15. What did Proust refuse from the doctors on his deathbed?
(a) Being seen by one.
(b) To talk to them.
(c) Medication.
(d) Diagnosis.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many years had it been since Proust visited the Louvre when he responded to the newspaper's poll?

2. What list does Proust develop at the end of Chapter 2?

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

4. What did Proust explain after the article was written about the young boy who murdered his mom.

5. What does De Botton claim humans are most dedicated to at the beginning of "How Proust Can Change Your Life ; Not a Novel"?

(see the answer keys)

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