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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When was Walter Benjamin Born?
(a) 1705 A.D.
(b) 1892 A.D.
(c) 1962 A.D.
(d) 1472 A.D.

2. What did George Orwell renounce, along with his former life?
(a) Poetry.
(b) The English legal system.
(c) The Catholic church.
(d) The class system.

3. Which is NOT one of the subjects written about by George Orwell?
(a) The Great Depression.
(b) The Spanish Civil War.
(c) The American Revolution.
(d) The threat of fascism.

4. Who wrote "Once More to the Lake"?
(a) Sara Suleri.
(b) Charles Lamb.
(c) Maria Edgeworth.
(d) E. B. White.

5. James Thurber is said to have inspired what, in American essay prose?
(a) Seriousness.
(b) Nonsense.
(c) Discussion of race issues.
(d) Pregnant pauses.

6. What is unusual about the essay "Once a Tramp, Always...?"
(a) It is written half in Spanish and half in English.
(b) It contains a coded message if deciphered.
(c) It includes food recipes.
(d) It contains lewd illustrations.

7. About how many essay collections and books did G. K. Chesterton write in his lifetime?
(a) Two-hundred.
(b) Three.
(c) Ninety.
(d) Twenty.

8. What term best describes the type of literature written by Virginia Woolf?
(a) Fables.
(b) Modern fiction.
(c) Nonfiction.
(d) Epic poetry.

9. Who wrote "Beside the Nore?"
(a) Hubert Butler.
(b) Seneca.
(c) Sei Shonagon.
(d) E.M. Cioran.

10. Who wrote "My Confession?"
(a) Mary McCarthy.
(b) F. Scott Fitzgerald.
(c) James Baldwin.
(d) Charles Lamb.

11. What is Jose Luis Borges' attitude in "Blindness?"
(a) Despairing.
(b) Outraged.
(c) Appreciative.
(d) Shocked.

12. Who wrote "Walking"?
(a) Phillip Lopate.
(b) Henry David Thoreau.
(c) Kenko.
(d) Seymour Krim.

13. Who wrote "Once a Tramp, Always..."?
(a) James Thurber.
(b) Seymour Krim.
(c) Sei Shonagon.
(d) M. F. K. Fisher.

14. Who wrote "An Apology for Idlers?"
(a) Plutarch.
(b) Robert Louis Stevenson.
(c) George Orwell.
(d) Maria Edgeworth.

15. Who wrote "On Being an American?"
(a) James Baldwin.
(b) Richard Rodriguez.
(c) H. L. Mencken.
(d) Mary McCarthy.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do Seymour Krim and Mary McCarthy have in common?

2. What is a frequent subject of Lu Hsun's work?

3. What title did Thurber give to his humorous autobiographical essay?

4. What event starts the essay, "On Running After One's Hat?"

5. At which newspaper did H.L. Mencken work?

(see the answer keys)

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