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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What disruption took place during Oscar Wilde's Harvard lecture?
(a) Unruly students rode horses through the lecture hall.
(b) Oscar Wilde was chased off the stage by angry students.
(c) Sixty students lampooned his style.
(d) A fight broke out between aestheticians.

2. 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) Repulsed by the presence of myth in literature.
(d) Satisfied with the decay of art and culture.

3. Where does Oscar Wilde give his first lecture in America?
(a) Broadway Theatre.
(b) Buell Hall.
(c) Chickering Hall.
(d) Dickinson Hall.

4. Who replaced Oscar Wilde as James McNeill Whistler's favorite in Wilde's absence?
(a) Rennell Rodd.
(b) Archibald Forbes.
(c) Lillie Langtry.
(d) The Duchess of Padua.

5. How does Oscar Wilde arrive in America?
(a) With distinctive flair.
(b) In desperate poverty.
(c) With a retinue of admirers.
(d) With open curiosity and enthusiasm.

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

7. What religion is Oscar Wilde first baptized into?
(a) Protestantism.
(b) Anglicanism.
(c) Catholicism.
(d) Calvinism.

8. What religion is Oscar Wilde baptized into the second time?
(a) Protestantism.
(b) Catholicism.
(c) Anglicanism.
(d) Calvinism.

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

10. When students disrupt one of Oscar Wilde's lectures, where does Oscar Wilde say the students have put their heads?
(a) In the lion's mouth.
(b) In the sewer.
(c) In the clouds.
(d) In their own ears.

11. How does Oscar Wilde resolve the opposition between Ruskin and Pater?
(a) He synthesized a new aesthetic ethics.
(b) He resolved to remain neutral.
(c) He sided with Ruskin.
(d) He sided with Pater.

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

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

14. What was Oscar Wilde's primary challenge in his fourth year at Oxford?
(a) To pass the Honour Moderations.
(b) To join Phi Beta Kappa.
(c) To join the Freemasons.
(d) To pass the School's Examinations.

15. What was Oscar Wilde interested in in school?
(a) Mechanical engineering.
(b) Medicine.
(c) Greek culture.
(d) Religion.

Short Answer Questions

1. What state are Oscar Wilde and his wife's finances in when they marry?

2. What was Oscar Wilde's mother's name before she changed it?

3. Where does Oscar Wilde first publish?

4. What does Oscar Wilde's mother encourage him to do?

5. What is the name of the friend who converted to Catholicism and influenced Oscar Wilde to consider converting?

(see the answer keys)

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