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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What are "apologies for gifts," according to Emerson?
(a) Store-bought gifts.
(b) Flowers.
(c) Fancy jewelry.
(d) Books.

2. What is bereft of models of heroism, according to Emerson's "Heroism"?
(a) Historical folklore.
(b) Secular society.
(c) Public education.
(d) Contemporary literature.

3. In what year was Plato born?
(a) 427 B.C.
(b) 431 B.C.
(c) 427 A.D.
(d) 431 A.D.

4. What kind of friendship does Emerson prefer?
(a) A rough kind of friendship.
(b) A friendship that is "evenly matched."
(c) An intellectual friendship.
(d) A long-distance friendship.

5. What does Plato's concept of the dichotomy of the body and soul provide the foundation for, according to Emerson?
(a) Christianity's monotheism.
(b) The afterlife.
(c) Paganism's polytheism.
(d) America's bipartisanism.

6. According to "An Address", what subverts the truly moral character of man?
(a) Christianity.
(b) American politics.
(c) European academia.
(d) Industry.

7. What direction is character aligned with, according to Emerson?
(a) East.
(b) North.
(c) West.
(d) South.

8. Who or what is a part of nature, according to "Nature"?
(a) Progress.
(b) Philosophy.
(c) Architecture.
(d) Man.

9. What credibility did Emerson have to discuss the topic of "An Address"?
(a) He was a Senator.
(b) He lived in a small cabin in the wilderness most of his life.
(c) He was a preacher.
(d) He was a college professor.

10. According to Emerson, who "should see that he can live all history in his own person"?
(a) The enlightened individual.
(b) The philosopher.
(c) The historian.
(d) The scholar.

11. What is the ultimate effect of two lovers drawing closer to each other spiritually?
(a) Drawing closer to each other physically.
(b) Drawing closer to God.
(c) Understanding each other on an intellectual level.
(d) Drawing closer to each other emotionally.

12. Why does Emerson say every man is not duplicitous for not only being partialist?
(a) Emerson says men are duplicitous.
(b) He can move between viewpoints, but is not both simultaneously.
(c) He really is only a partialist, except when in conversation with other philosophers.
(d) It is simply the way the human mind works.

13. What is the primary tool of the poet?
(a) Language.
(b) Truth.
(c) Experience.
(d) Imagination.

14. Where did Emerson deliver "The Lord's Supper" as a sermon?
(a) The Second Church of Boston.
(b) St. Louis Cathedral.
(c) Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral.
(d) Westminster Abbey.

15. How was "The Transcendentalist" originally delivered?
(a) As a lecture.
(b) As a letter to Henry David Thoreau.
(c) As a eulogy.
(d) As a commencement address.

Short Answer Questions

1. How should history be understood, according to Emerson's essay "History"?

2. What word or phrase means a belief that God's grace allows an individual to ignore all laws, divine and terrestrial?

3. What right of individuals has never been tried as the foundation of a state?

4. According to "Compensation", which of the following is NOT one of the realms mentioned that achieves a balance between positive and negative forces?

5. What is the subject of "An Address"?

(see the answer keys)

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