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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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.

2. Madame Bovary uses what metaphor to describe marriage?
(a) An intimate and joyful day on a private beach in Fiji.
(b) A great rosy-plumaged bird soaring in the splendors of poetic skies.
(c) An exquisite French dessert, delicious, but hard to create.
(d) A beautiful spring day spent in a field of wildflowers.

3. Viorst's poem, "I bring the children one more glass of water," is about what?
(a) A dream of helping children find clean water.
(b) Sex not being so sexy anymore.
(c) Being an overworked mother.
(d) The anxieties of going to sleep as a child.

4. Simone de Beauvoir once said, "Old age is life's ___________."
(a) Cruel joke.
(b) Final act.
(c) Swan song.
(d) Parody.

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

6. A man in his forties confessed to Viorst that he reviewed his life insurance policy after he was diagnosed with what?
(a) Gout.
(b) Tennis elbow.
(c) Heart disease.
(d) Cancer.

7. Parents have trouble seeing their children as what?
(a) Anything but perfect.
(b) Competent humans.
(c) Separate people.
(d) A part of themselves.

8. Which book referenced in Chapter 14 references the "good mother"?
(a) The World According to Garp by John Irving
(b) The Mother Knot by Jane Lazarre
(c) Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
(d) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.

9. According to a psychologist in Chapter 13, husbands and wives are each other's what?
(a) Coping mechanism.
(b) Best friends.
(c) Greatest lovers.
(d) Intimate enemies.

10. What is the name of the son in Death of a Salesman that Viorst uses as an example of the restricting roles some parents foist on their children?
(a) Biff.
(b) William.
(c) Jonathan.
(d) Jeff.

11. In what form of internalization do we take on aspects of those we have loved?
(a) Identification.
(b) Chameleonization.
(c) Depression.
(d) Personification.

12. Who said the following? "Now she is aware of some of the losses you incur by being here -- the extraordinary rent you have to pay as long as you stay."
(a) Annie Dillard.
(b) Virginia Woolf.
(c) George Eliot.
(d) Emily Dickinson.

13. Who once said, "God ordains that every genius shall have an illness at forty"?
(a) Mark Twain.
(b) Arthur Miller.
(c) Oscar Wilde.
(d) George Bernard Shaw.

14. Name the foiled romantic in Flaubert's Madame Bovary.
(a) Jane.
(b) Elizabeth.
(c) Soline.
(d) Emma.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. The title of Chapter 12 lists what?

2. According to Viorst, what types of feelings are present in ALL friendships?

3. Which sex tends to have only superficial relationships?

4. Men pursue ______________; women yearn for _______________.

5. Which three fictional characters discussed in the book does Viorst specifically mention in Chapter 20?

(see the answer keys)

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