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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Emerson claim men believe about how they communicate their character?
(a) They believe they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions.
(b) They believe they can communicate their virtue without their vice.
(c) They believe that communicating virtuous actions makes up for their vice.
(d) They believe their virtue and vice emit a breath every moment.

2. What does Emerson say "...is all that concerns..." him?
(a) What I must do.
(b) My own charities.
(c) What I believe.
(d) My own thought.

3. What does Emerson say is a conspiracy against manhood?
(a) The world.
(b) Nature.
(c) Society.
(d) Joint-stock companies.

4. What does Emerson insist a man must be in order to really be a man?
(a) Self-reliant.
(b) Genuine.
(c) Fearless.
(d) Nonconformist.

5. What does Emerson say he has difficulty detecting when people "maintain a dead church"?
(a) The precise nature of one's beliefs.
(b) The precise source of one's conviction.
(c) The precise tone of one's character.
(d) The precise man one is.

6. What does Emerson say about the occurrence of virtues?
(a) They are the exception rather than the rule.
(b) Men are virtuous by nature.
(c) Virtue comes through action.

(d) Society helps sustain virtue.

7. What is an institution the lengthened shadow of?
(a) A great character.
(b) A series of geniuses.
(c) One man.
(d) All great men.

8. To which "iron string" does Emerson say every heart vibrates?
(a) Live thy will.
(b) Trust thyself.
(c) Represent thyself.
(d) Never give up.

9. Which of the following movements did Emerson NOT mention in his listing of "institutions"?
(a) Monachism.
(b) Abolition.
(c) The Reformation.
(d) The Mongolian Empire.

10. What kind of expression does Emerson say that we begin to acquire with conformity?
(a) The gentlest asinine expression.
(b) The gentlest weak-minded expression.
(c) The gentlest rational expression.
(d) The gentlest perceptive expression.

11. Why does Emerson say about children's minds?
(a) Their minds are undeveloped.
(b) Their minds are untrustworthy.
(c) Their minds are whole.
(d) Their minds are uninfluenced.

12. Which effort does Emerson insist we obey?
(a) The Almighty effort.
(b) The Divine effort.
(c) The Godly effort.
(d) The Higher effort.

13. What do others use to "compute our orbit"?
(a) Our past acts.
(b) Our self-trust.
(c) Our consistency.
(d) Our countenance.

14. What does Emerson insist men carry themselves in the presence of?
(a) Societies and dead institutions.
(b) Decent and well-spoken individuals.
(c) God.
(d) All opposition.

15. What does Emerson not recommend dragging about in his discussion of past acts?
(a) The carcass of your consistency.
(b) The burden of the public.
(c) The deadweight of contradiction.
(d) The corpse of your memory.

Short Answer Questions

1. What are boys sure of in Emerson's example of how boys speak their mind?

2. What does Emerson say is most important about verses like the ones he mentions at the beginning of the first paragraph?

3. What does Emerson suggest one should accept in regards to divine providence?

4. Why does Emerson say that it is difficult to live his rule?

5. What word does Emerson use to describe people who live their own opinion "in the midst of the crowd"?

(see the answer keys)

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