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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Voluntary Poverty is a cure for out-sized _____ and mankind's suffering, according to the ending of the book.

2. Gandhi has experienced both ________ and poverty, but chooses poverty as this seems to help his work.

3. Nature has a major role in what man is given to _______ and to live a happy life, even when he doesn't realize it, according to the book.

4. __________ should be left behind, according to the book, once wealth and possessions have been renounced by a person.

5. _______ are taught to want things from a very young age, according to the book's writing in this section.

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Seneca point out that man does not limit when it comes to the use of nature?

2. What should education teach children, according to the ideas in the book?

3. What has the artist always been able to do, according to Honore de Balzac?

4. What does Gandhi discover as he has experienced both wealth and poverty?

5. What does Young say would happen if America gave away possessions they did not need to the rest of the world?

6. What is a time that is found to be boring, unlike the idea of leisure, as described in this section?

7. What is the one gift that is provided by a transition to Voluntary Poverty, according to VandenBroeck?

8. What do artists and the creative community seem to understand that others do not?

9. Though life is a struggle, what is the advice that Burroughs gives to the reader in this section?

10. What has been warped by the luxury of the United States as it defines this as being normal?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Much about the rich is liked to be pageantry and stage settings, rather than a life of value.

Part 1: How do you think possessions are like props in one's life?

Part 2: Why do you think the rich sometimes buy things they don't need?

Part 3: Do you think you own a lot of things that you don't need? Why do you have them?

Essay Topic 2

William James points out that the praises of poverty need to be sung more loudly than they had been lately.

Part 1: What do you think some of the praises of poverty are?

Part 2: How do you think poverty could be more celebrated in society?

Part 3: Do you agree that people need to learn more about poverty in order to appreciate it?

Essay Topic 3

Some people believe that while man has the ability to reach divine forms, man also has the ability to degenerate into lower forms.

Part 1: Do you think that mankind will ever reach a divine form?

Part 2: How do you think man tends to degenerate himself into lower form?

Part 3: Why do you think that man hasn't decided to reach for higher forms?

(see the answer keys)

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