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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Why does Emerson say we distrust our sentiment?
(a) We understand the work required.
(b) We understand the opposition.
(c) We are unsure of ourselves.
(d) We are unsure of what others will think.

3. What does Emerson suggest about philanthropy?
(a) Philanthropy is our obligation to poor men.
(b) Philanthropy can be malice and vanity in disguise.
(c) Philanthropy is the highest good.
(d) It is our right to be philanthropic.

4. How does Emerson say a man feels when he has done his best?
(a) Delivered.
(b) Restless.
(c) Relieved.
(d) Powerful.

5. What are boys sure of in Emerson's example of how boys speak their mind?
(a) Their parents.
(b) Themselves.
(c) Their dinner.
(d) Their friends.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Emerson claim most men have attached themselves to?

2. What does Emerson wish adults could return to?

3. What is Emerson describing when he states: "In your metaphysics you have denied personality to the Deity: yet when the devout motions of the soul come ... they should clothe God with shape and color"?

4. What does Emerson say the muscles are moved by in his discussion of company?

5. What does Emerson say the world will do to you for nonconformity?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Emerson say about sympathy in paragraph 37?

2. Explain which characteristics Emerson says, in paragraph 11, that a person must be equipped with in order to withstand the consequences of nonconformity.

3. What does Emerson mean in paragraph 6 when he describes the voices we hear in solitude as "grown faint and inaudible as we enter into the world"?

4. What do you know about Ralph Waldo Emerson?

5. Explain Emerson's example of "boys who are sure of a dinner" from paragraph 5.

6. Emerson explains in paragraph 8 why he believes men "do what is called a good action." Describe his opinion on this subject.

7. In paragraph 21, Emerson begins an explanation of the "reason of self-trust." Explain very briefly the question he is asking and the answer he finds.

8. What does Emerson mean in paragraph 17 when he says, "An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man."?

9. In paragraph 38, Emerson explains the relationship between education and self-reliance. Describe this relationship.

10. In paragraph 14, Emerson portrays the relationship between consistency and being misunderstood. Explain this relationship.

(see the answer keys)

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