View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Whose minds are formed in a certain direction, according to "Spiritual Laws"?
(a) Philosophers.
(b) The unenlightened.
(c) Warriors.
(d) Animals.

2. Whose principles, which led to a new age in quantum physics, are similar to the ideas hinted at in "Circles"?
(a) Leonard Hofstadter's.
(b) Gabriele Veneziano's.
(c) Robert Oppenheimer's.
(d) Albert Einstein's.

3. What, with friendship, creates a "cordial goodwill," according to "Friendship"?
(a) Love.
(b) Cordiality.
(c) Goodwill.
(d) Nothing; all that is needed is friendship.

4. Whom does Emerson especially urge to experience their own heroism?
(a) Children.
(b) The downtrodden.
(c) Women.
(d) Religious mystics.

5. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of the best gift, according to "Gifts"?
(a) Something that comes directly from the giver.
(b) Something that acknowledges an essential truth about the receiver.
(c) Something that reflects the giver.
(d) Something that acknowledges an essential truth about the giver.

6. According to Emerson, it is the challenge of American scholars to foster and support the development of truly American ______ and ______.
(a) Thought; language.
(b) Thought; culture.
(c) Culture; literature.
(d) Language; literature.

7. True prudence does not question ______ laws.
(a) Spiritual.
(b) Man's.
(c) Natural.
(d) God's.

8. Each person has his or her own vocation that can be discovered by ______.
(a) Psychological evaluation.
(b) Cultural instruction.
(c) The person's passions.
(d) The direction of the mind.

9. What right of individuals has never been tried as the foundation of a state?
(a) Reverence.
(b) Trust.
(c) Employment.
(d) Love.

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

11. How are eccentricities dealt with in people who are otherwise fit to enter a mannered upper class?
(a) They become a matter of amusement.
(b) They become ammunition for expulsion from that upper class.
(c) They are politely ignored.
(d) They are molded into good manners.

12. At what college did Emerson give "The American Scholar" as an address?
(a) Harvard.
(b) Oxford.
(c) New York University.
(d) Princeton.

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

14. Who is the author of "Selected Writings"?
(a) Henry David Thoreau.
(b) Ralph Waldo Emerson.
(c) Plato.
(d) Napoleon.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How will society become better, according to Emerson?

2. In what year was Plato born?

3. What credibility did Emerson have to discuss the topic of "An Address"?

4. What is bereft of models of heroism, according to Emerson's "Heroism"?

5. What is the ultimate effect of two lovers drawing closer to each other spiritually?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 505 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample