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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who is Gilberte?
(a) De Botton's girlfriend.
(b) The woman the narrator in "In Search of Lost Time" becomes enamored with.
(c) Proust's girlfriend.
(d) Proust's sister.

2. How did Proust succeed in winning friends?
(a) By keeping the conversation on the other person.
(b) By keeping the conversation on himself.
(c) By being a listener.
(d) By his wealth.

3. What did Proust himself have a wide variety of?
(a) Impressionist art.
(b) Books on writing.
(c) Nicknames.
(d) European art.

4. What did Proust compare the moon to in one of his famous metaphors?
(a) Religion.
(b) A child.
(c) A woman.
(d) An actor.

5. What did Proust feel people should separate in their friendship?
(a) The intellectual life and the means of support.
(b) The need for passion and intellect.
(c) The need for companionship and passion.
(d) Intellectual life and our need for companionship.

6. What happened where Proust went to with his father as a child?
(a) He was great art.
(b) He caught a foul ball.
(c) He was unable to perform.
(d) He was trapeeze.

7. What did Proust see in his friends?
(a) Their positivity.
(b) Their faults.
(c) Their negativity.
(d) Nothing.

8. How did Proust respond to the Impressionist art movement?
(a) Favorably.
(b) Unfavorably.
(c) Indifferently.
(d) He was supportive.

9. How did Proust act with his friends?
(a) Generously and like a "people pleaser".
(b) Passively and with inferiority.
(c) He had no friends.
(d) Calmly.

10. According to Proust, what should exist when a lover is being obtained?
(a) A thrill.
(b) A chase.
(c) A pursuit.
(d) A desire.

11. What does Proust argue people are not doing when they use trite and cliched expressions?
(a) They are annoying.
(b) They rely on others to communicate.
(c) They are uneducated.
(d) They are not being true to themselves.

12. Who did Proust write to in the letter De Botton shares in Chapter 8?
(a) His sister.
(b) His mother.
(c) His grandfather,
(d) His grandmother.

13. What did Proust say about people when they used tried sayings?
(a) They are plagiarizing.
(b) They are "superficial articulations" of ideas and experiences.
(c) They are lazy.
(d) They lack creativity and authenticity.

14. What phrase does Proust use to explain one solution of keeping lover's love alive?
(a) "Absence makes the heart grow fonder".
(b) "Love them and continue to".
(c) "Give to others more than you expect to receive".
(d) "Out of sight out of mind".

15. Who was an editor who also wrote a piece about a composer George Bizet?
(a) Louis Ganderax.
(b) De Botton.
(c) Marquis de Lau.
(d) Proust.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the reality of people's life often not match in the perception of their life?

2. What does Proust's comparison of the moon show in comparison to the the author of "The Lover and the Doctor"?

3. Where did Proust's father take Proust when he was a child?

4. What did Proust's own problems with friendship come from?

5. What did Proust believe about people when they were with their friends?

(see the answer keys)

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