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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What other artistic skill did James Thurber have, in addition to writing?
(a) He was a sculptor.
(b) He was a landscape painter.
(c) He was a voice over actor.
(d) He was a cartoonist.

2. Who wrote "He and I"?
(a) Natalia Ginzburg.
(b) Samuel Johnson.
(c) Plutarch.
(d) Richard Steele.

3. Who wrote "Street Haunting?"
(a) Michel de Montaigne.
(b) Virginia Woolf.
(c) Phillip Lopate.
(d) Robert Louis Stevenson.

4. Who wrote "Hashis in Marseilles"?
(a) Henry David Thoreau.
(b) Walter Benjamin.
(c) Maria Edgeworth.
(d) Michel de Montaigne.

5. 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.

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

7. What death did M.F.K. Fisher have to endure that she writes about?
(a) The death of her nephew.
(b) The death of her second husband.
(c) The death of her son.
(d) The death of her daughter.

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

9. What might best describe the attitude of the author in "Such, Such Were the Joys..."?
(a) Thoughtful and optimistic.
(b) Depressed and suicidal.
(c) Joyous and spontaneous.
(d) Angry and pessimistic.

10. When was Junichiro Tanizaki born?
(a) 1886 A.D.
(b) 30 B.C.
(c) 1052 A.D.
(d) 342 A.D.

11. What inspired Ivan Turgenev's view of servants?
(a) His father was killed by a servant.
(b) He was raised by a servant.
(c) He was raised watching his mother abuse all of those around her.
(d) Turgenev's father trafficked in slaves.

12. Who is Hsun addressing in his essay "Death?"
(a) America.
(b) Death himself.
(c) The emperor of China.
(d) His family.

13. What is the author's opinion of public executions in "The Execution of Tropmann?"
(a) Public executions should be ended.
(b) Public executions are necessary for law and order.
(c) Public executions are thrilling.
(d) Public executions are tools of the class system.

14. What did Mencken call his collection of writings?
(a) "Prejudices."
(b) "Sweet Treats."
(c) "Brain Scribblings."
(d) "The Ruin of an Otherwise Perfect Day."

15. What does Tanizaki talk about in "In Praise of Shadows?"
(a) The horror of blindness.
(b) The dying of the old ways.
(c) The intensity of beauty.
(d) The birth of his daughter.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who wrote "Beside the Nore?"

2. Who wrote "This Tool Is Life?"

3. What is Jose Luis Borges' attitude in "Blindness?"

4. Before attempting personal essays, what kind of writer was Seymour Krim?

5. What is the subject of "Such, Such Were the Joys..."?

(see the answer keys)

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