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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the dessert that the Dalai Lama most enjoys?

2. How old was the Dalai Lama when he escaped from Tibet to India?

3. What news program profiled the person Abrams thinks embodies the principles of gratitude and forgiveness?

4. What does the Dalai Lama say the Buddha's first teaching is?

5. What does the Archbishop say is the natural response when someone hits you?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Part IV, what does the Dalai Lama say he learned on his flight from Japan to San Francisco in sitting next to a mother with young children?

2. In Part III, what does Jinpa say is the true measure of spiritual development?

3. In Part IV, why does Archbishop Tutu say the ability to laugh at himself has served him well in life and allowed him to connect with people?

4. What decision regarding Archbishop Tutu's children created some tension and anguish between Tutu and his wife, Leah?

5. In Part III, what does the Dalai Lama say about his feelings about his own safety and security in Dharamsala?

6. In Part IV, what experience of Archbishop Tutu's has the greatest impact on his teachings and philosophies about forgiveness?

7. In Part IV, what does Abrams say is necessary in order for people to feel present in each moment?

8. In Part IV, why did the Dalai Lama laugh so hard when a former Protestant militant in Belfast said the loyalists had always taught him Jesus was Protestant and not Catholic?

9. In Part IV, who is the person in Archbishop Tutu's life that has caused him some of the deepest personal pain and why?

10. In Part III, why does the Dalai Lama jokingly say he prefers to go to hell?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why are envy and jealousy so corrosive and such powerful barriers to realizing joy in one's life, according to the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

Consider the following quote from Brother David Steindel-Rast on page 242: "It is not happiness that makes us grateful. It is gratefulness that makes us happy." How does this quote apply to the Dalai Lama's teachings on the relationship between gratitude and joy? Write an essay explaining your answer.

Essay Topic 3

How do you think Douglas Abrams' personal relationship - and friendship - with Archbishop Desmond Tutu affected his perspective and his approach to writing The Book of Joy? Write an essay explaining your answer.

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