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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Intimate male-female relationships are rare because of what?
(a) Socially unacceptable norms.
(b) The adultery factor.
(c) Women would just rather talk to other women.
(d) The sexual tension.

2. Which famous family does Viorst mention in Chapter 15?
(a) The Windsors.
(b) The Kennedys.
(c) The Vanderbilts.
(d) The Carnegies.

3. The following headline ran in what paper? "HER OUTSIDE PREOCCUPATION CAN LEAVE HIM ISOLATED AT TIME OF MORE LEISURE"
(a) The Wall Street Journal.
(b) The Washington Post.
(c) The New York Times.
(d) The Chicago Tribune.

4. According to Chapter 13, there can be no human love without what?
(a) Fear.
(b) Ambivalence.
(c) Passion and romance.
(d) A caring parental relationship.

5. What does the father in the poem referenced in Chapter 14 finally conclude?
(a) That he can indeed protect his children.
(b) That his children will just grow up and go away.
(c) That he never should have had children.
(d) That he must let his children go.

6. What does this line from a poem by Longfellow tell us about old age? "Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last, Completed Faust when eighty years were past."
(a) It's never too late.
(b) Faust isn't very good because it was written by an elderly person.
(c) Goethe must have really enjoyed his work.
(d) Aging is hard work.

7. What was the name of the married woman with four children, mentioned in Chapter 12, who formed a non-sexual friendship with another man?
(a) Dorothy.
(b) Evelyn.
(c) Elizabeth.
(d) Lucy.

8. According to Viorst, in middle age we inspire far less ________ than we do ___________.
(a) Admiration; annoyance.
(b) Lust; respect.
(c) Respect; pity.
(d) Hatred; love.

9. Viorst details which famous baby doctor in Chapter 18?
(a) Benjamin Spock.
(b) Bill Sears.
(c) B. F. Skinner.
(d) T. Berry Brazelton.

10. What is the name of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's highly influential book?
(a) O, Death, Be Mine.
(b) The Last Cattle Call.
(c) Death Comes for the Archbishop.
(d) On Death and Dying.

11. Which famous author wrote this about the loss of his cherished wife: "The first plunge of the knife into the flesh is felt again and again"?
(a) Charles Dickens.
(b) Victor Hugo.
(c) J.R.R. Tolkien.
(d) C.S. Lewis.

12. What type of relationship reinforces our self-knowledge, widens our worldview, and supports our self-esteem?
(a) Friendship.
(b) A mentoring relationship.
(c) The parent-child relationship.
(d) Marriage.

13. How did Cecil and Julia Saunders die?
(a) Their plane crashed on the way to their granddaughter's wedding.
(b) Someone broke into their house and killed them.
(c) They died in a car accident.
(d) They shot themselves.

14. The earliest text on the subject of aging came from where?
(a) China.
(b) Iraq.
(c) Egypt.
(d) Greece.

15. What's the title of the book?
(a) Necessary Losses.
(b) Living is Loss.
(c) Impossible Expectations.
(d) Ups and Downs.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who once said, "God ordains that every genius shall have an illness at forty"?

2. Name the foiled romantic in Flaubert's Madame Bovary.

3. Viorst quotes this book, written by Kathrin Perutz, in Chapter 13.

4. Friends and intimate partners are considered what?

5. Simone de Beauvoir once said, "Old age is life's ___________."

(see the answer keys)

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