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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why do the Puritans have such a strong impact on the national character, according to the narrator?
(a) Because they are so driven to evangelize to others.
(b) Because they are among the first to arrive in a wild place.
(c) Because they persuade everyone else to emulate them.
(d) Because they are so dashing and heroic that everyone tells stories about them.

2. Who does Gregory say is depicted more boldly by Williams than by any other writer?
(a) Aaron Burr.
(b) George Washington.
(c) Cotton Mather.
(d) Abraham Lincoln.

3. What happens to Cortez when the Aztecs counterattack from outside the city?
(a) He and his men defeat them easily.
(b) He and his men win after a long battle.
(c) He is forced to negotiate a temporary treaty in order to escape with his life.
(d) He loses everything and has to flee with his men.

4. How does the death of Juan Ortiz affect De Soto?
(a) It makes him feel lonely and wish he had a friend.
(b) It leaves him without a doctor.
(c) It leaves him without a single soldier who knows the way back.
(d) It leaves him without a translator.

5. Why do the Puritans disapprove of Thomas Morton?
(a) He does not pay his taxes.
(b) He barters guns and liquor to Indians.
(c) He does not believe in God.
(d) He is not married.

Short Answer Questions

1. At the beginning of the Introduction, Horace Gregory quotes William Carlos Williams as saying "History, history! We fools, what do we know or care?" What does Gregory think Williams means by this?

2. When does De Soto plan to send word about his expedition to Maldonado?

3. What is the overall tone of Williams' remarks about the Puritans?

4. What are Bridget Bishop and Susanna Martin indicted for?

5. Who did Ponce de Leon's pilot previously work for?

Short Essay Questions

1. What kind of person does Williams say that Daniel Boone is?

2. What does the narrator of "Sir Walter Raleigh" imply when he exhorts the Muse to sing of "the pursuit of beauty and the husk that remains," or when he says that Raleigh's England became "a mouthful of smoke sucked from the embers of a burnt weed"?

3. What was Aaron Burr like, according to Williams?

4. How did Cortez feel about burning Tenochtitlan?

5. What were some of the dangers faced by sailors on ships during a battle at sea?

6. What role does Williams say that Edgar Allen Poe plays in American literature?

7. Why did De Soto's men try to keep the Indians from finding out about his death?

8. What does Cotton Mather say went wrong before the witches appeared?

9. What do you think will happen to the "credulous and literal-minded" if they walk into the "ancient trap" that Gregory considers history to be?

10. How does Williams think the rest of the world reacts when the United States sends aid overseas?

(see the answer keys)

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