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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What belief does Pater lead Oscar Wilde to?
(a) Art can improve society.
(b) Work can set you free.
(c) Man can govern himself.
(d) Art can transcend reality.

2. What does Oscar Wilde do at Marie Prescott's request?
(a) He added a part for her in "The Duchess of Padua."
(b) He moved to Paris.
(c) He rewrote "Vera."
(d) He returned to England.

3. When does Oscar Wilde achieve fame?
(a) 1880.
(b) 1878.
(c) 1881.
(d) 1882.

4. How did Oscar Wilde feel about his dialogue with William Butler Yeats?
(a) Depressed about the prospect of getting old.
(b) Impressed with the nature of life and art.
(c) Satisfied with the decay of art and culture.
(d) Repulsed by the presence of myth in literature.

5. Which intellectual invokes disciplined restraint?
(a) Mill.
(b) Arnold.
(c) Pater.
(d) Ruskin.

6. With which American writer does Oscar Wilde meet in Philadelphia while he is making his first set of American lectures?
(a) Walt Whitman.
(b) Ralph Waldo Emerson.
(c) Margaret Fuller.
(d) Nathaniel Hawthorne.

7. What is the name of Oscar Wilde's first play?
(a) "The Duchess of Padua."
(b) "Vera."
(c) "The Importance of Being Earnest."
(d) "The Ballad of Reading Gaol."

8. Oscar Wilde decorated his room with pictures of whom?
(a) Martin Luther and John Calvin.
(b) The Pope and Bishop Manning.
(c) King Henry VIII
(d) Florence Balcombe.

9. What kind of run does "Vera" have in America?
(a) Long and successful.
(b) Short but meteoric.
(c) Short and disappointing.
(d) Unspectacular, but moderately successful.

10. How well had Oscar Wilde's studies prepared him for Oxford?
(a) He was so well prepared that he skipped several courses.
(b) He was far behind the other students and had to catch up.
(c) He was on the same level as the rest of the students.
(d) He was very well prepared and found the work boring.

11. Where is Oscar Wilde invited to lecture?
(a) In Berlin.
(b) In Paris.
(c) In Scotland.
(d) In America.

12. What is the name of the man who attacked Oscar Wilde mercilessly during his American lectures?
(a) Archibald Forbes.
(b) John Rockefeller.
(c) Howard Taft.
(d) Walter Pater.

13. What profession does Oscar Wilde give up in order to supplement his wife's income?
(a) Lecturing.
(b) Journalism.
(c) Playwriting.
(d) Poetry.

14. Which intellectual does Oscar Wilde turn to for spiritual guidance?
(a) Pater.
(b) Arnold.
(c) Ruskin.
(d) Mill.

15. Where does Oscar Wilde give his first public lecture in America?
(a) Baltimore.
(b) New York.
(c) Boston.
(d) Philadelphia.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was Oscar Wilde's reaction to the attacks that were made on him?

2. Whose house does Oscar Wilde move out of while his first play is being prepared?

3. What is the outcome of Oscar Wilde's travels and lectures in America?

4. Which direction does Oscar Wilde's lecturing tour travel in?

5. Who is Archibald Forbes?

(see the answer keys)

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