View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did Gurdjieff view his father?
(a) like a fool whom he had no respect for
(b) like a very stern patriarch whom he feared
(c) like a friend who was somewhat beneath him
(d) like an older brother who instilled high ideals in him

2. What is it impossible to do even if one is an excellent linguist?
(a) dream in a foreign language
(b) speak more than five languages fluently
(c) speak like a native in a foreign language.
(d) think in a foreign language while speaking one's native tongue

3. Why did the subject of spiritualism make a strong impression on Gurdjieff?
(a) because he wanted to believe in immortality
(b) because of the recent death of his favorite sister
(c) because he wanted to take part in a seance
(d) because his dead sister appeared to him in a dream

4. What, in Gurdjieff's opinion, has harmed contemporary literature?
(a) not enough good writers
(b) the grammars of all languages
(c) readers who are easily taken in by inferior, sensational writing
(d) writers seeking fame rather than quality

5. Where is the chief monastery of the Essene Brotherhood situated?
(a) in Nazareth
(b) near Jerusalem
(c) near the sea of Galilee
(d) not far from the shores of the Dead Sea

6. Who was Vseslavsky?
(a) Bogachevsky's childhood friend
(b) Bogachevsky's brother-in-law
(c) an army chaplain friend of Bogchevsky
(d) a fellow-countryman of Bogachevsky and an army engineer

7. How old was Dean Borsh when he first taught Gurdjieff and visited his father to discuss religious and historical subjects?
(a) seventy-five
(b) seventy-two
(c) seventy
(d) sixty-eight

8. Where did the second contest that Gurdjieff witnessed take place?
(a) Istanbul in Turkey
(b) Karabakh in Azerbaijan
(c) Bagdad
(d) Baku in Turkey

9. What subjects did Ponomarenko teach Gurdjieff?
(a) philosophy and Turkish
(b) mathematics and history
(c) geography and history
(d) Russian and geography

10. What was awakened in Gurdjieff while listening to Bogachevsky and his friends' discussions around the samovar?
(a) a feeling of inferiority when he compared himself with them
(b) an interest in abstract questions and spiritualism
(c) an interest in becoming a member of the Essene Brotherhood
(d) an interest in mathematics

11. How does Gurdjieff first meet Dean Borsh?
(a) after joining the cathedral choir
(b) on a street in Kars, his childhood home town
(c) in his father's workshop
(d) at a funeral of a family friend

12. In what town did the first of the ashokh contests which Gurdjieff witnessed take place?
(a) Tabul in Turkey
(b) Viestock in Persia
(c) Van in Turkey
(d) Istanbul in Turkey

13. What did Father Borsh think that the gratification of lust before adulthood would do to a youth?
(a) turn him into a monstrosity
(b) stunt his growth
(c) drive him insane
(d) make a man of him

14. With whom did Gurdjieff's father carry on long conversations about philosophy and theology?
(a) with his brother, Gurdjieff's beloved uncle
(b) with Gurdjieff's first tutor, Dean Borsh
(c) with Gurdjieff himself
(d) with his close friend, Ivan Ivanovich

15. What phenomenon do Bogachevsky and his friends experiment with?
(a) "table turning"--laying hands on a table and asking it questions
(b) summoning spirits from the dead using a medium
(c) divining people's names by holding their hands
(d) disappearing rabbits

Short Answer Questions

1. Why was the lumber yard that Gurdjieff's father opened a failure?

2. Gurdjieff intended to write his book in accordance with what counsel for living employed by Mullah Nassr Eddin?

3. What did the Yezidis believe?

4. What did Father Borsh look like?

5. Where did Gurdjieff''s father come from?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 713 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample