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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. What does conformity explain?
(a) Itself.
(b) One's fear.
(c) Nothing.
(d) Everything.

2. What does Emerson say boys don't worry about?
(a) Their consciousness.
(b) What others think.
(c) Consequences.
(d) Being genuine.

3. On what does Emerson say we will be advancing if we live as "guides, redeemers and benefactors"?
(a) Evil and Chaos.
(b) Chaos and the Devil.
(c) Evil and the Dark.
(d) Chaos and the Dark.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. Which of the following figures does Emerson not mention as being an example of speaking one's mind?

4. What does "Ne te quaesiveris extra" mean?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. In paragraph 13, Emerson says it "seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on your memory alone ... but to bring the past for judgment into the thousand-eyed present." What does he mean by the phrase "thousand-eyed present"?

2. Emerson makes an important point about who or what one will see along the way "in the hour of vision" in paragraph 25. What does he say?

3. In paragraph 14, Emerson explains the relationship between being misunderstood and greatness. Explain this relationship.

4. In paragraph 22, Emerson explains God's way of communicating. Give a brief explanation of his theory.

5. Emerson describes insightfully in paragraph 9 when it is easy to live according to his philosophy and when it is difficult. Explain this insight.

6. Explain Emerson's comparison of the white man to the New Zealander.

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

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

9. 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"?

10. What does Emerson mean when he says (in paragraph 10), "Nature is not slow to equip us in the prison-uniform of the party to which we adhere. We come to wear one cut of face and figure"?

(see the answer keys)

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