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

2. What does Emerson claim most men have attached themselves to?
(a) One community of opinion.
(b) Their own opinions.
(c) The opinion of a woman.
(d) The opinions of their contemporaries.

3. What rule of wisdom does Emerson seem to find in his discussion of society's views of past acts?
(a) Always rely on the memory of others.
(b) Never rely on the memories of others.
(c) Never rely on your memory alone.
(d) Always rely on your memory alone.

4. What word does Emerson use to describe people who live their own opinion "in the midst of the crowd"?
(a) Independent.
(b) Great.
(c) Base.
(d) Ingenious.

5. What does Emerson mean when he writes: "...yet when the devout motions of the soul come, yield to them heart and life, though they should clothe God with shape and color"?
(a) Encourage the artists that paint the likeness of God.
(b) God will take on form even if you never believed in a deity.
(c) You will find that God has an actual form.
(d) You should give up your life for those that give form to God.

Short Answer Questions

1. "The voyage of the best ship is..."

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

3. What does Emerson claim "statesmen and philosophers and divines" adore?

4. Which of the following did Emerson NOT say by name is misunderstood?

5. How does Emerson say a man can recognize what he is capable of?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain what Emerson is referring to in saying, in paragraph 13, "Leave your theory, as Joseph his coat in the hand of the harlot, and flee."

2. 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"?

3. 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"?

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

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

6. In paragraph 10, Emerson gives a long account of exactly why he objects to conformity. His objection relates to personal "force" and the perception of character. Can you explain this objection?

7. Near the end of paragraph 19, Emerson says, "As great a stake depends on your private act to-day, as followed their public and renowned steps." What does he mean by this quote?

8. In paragraph 33, Emerson says, "We are become timorous, desponding whimperers." Explain what he means by this.

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

10. What does Emerson say in paragraph 29 about others having the power to annoy us?

(see the answer keys)

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