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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. When was the manuscript for this book discovered?
(a) After the author's death.
(b) After the author told a relative that he'd hidden a manuscript.
(c) After the author was put in a nursing home.
(d) After the author completed the book.

2. What inventions does the narrator say are due to the evolution of man into a clothed creature?
(a) Hair brushes and driers.
(b) Jeans and t-shirts.
(c) Soap and deodorant.
(d) Mirrors and wardrobes.

3. How does the office boy travel?
(a) Day trips on weekends.
(b) During his vacation week.
(c) He doesn't get to travel any more since he is now working.
(d) Through collected photos.

4. What kind of feeling does the narrator say that tedium creates?
(a) That every day is worth living.
(b) That nothing can be better than the moment that just passed.
(c) That everything must be absolutely perfect.
(d) That there is nothing better to do.

5. Who enjoys being sick?
(a) The narrator's mother.
(b) Valquez.
(c) Soares.
(d) The office boy.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the author advise people to do if they feel they must disclose information about themselves to others?

2. What does the narrator say are the only memories that exist?

3. What instrument did a girl who lived above the narrator play when she lived in the building?

4. Whose life is described his life as being similar to a person who has wrecked his ship on a calm sea in shallow water?

5. To what natural occurrence does the narrator liken his own feelings of tedium?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why doesn't the narrator believe that one person can truly love another?

2. Why does the narrator isolate himself, and how does it affect his sensitivity to worldly things?

3. According to the narrator, how does one become a man of action? What role do men of action play in society and why?

4. What does the narrator say about animal happiness? What is is reasoning?

5. According to the narrator, how should intelligent men view God?

6. According to the narrator, what is the only true form of pleasure that exists? Explain his reasoning.

7. How does the narrator begin to view writing after the critic advises him about his physical appearance?

8. What does the narrator say about tedium?

9. Why does the narrator dislike reading the newspaper?

10. What perception does the narrator believe readers will have of him after reading the book? Why is the anticipated perception not true, according to the narrator?

(see the answer keys)

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