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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Alpha became a moral authority, as he had dreamed, because of his work in what place?
(a) In the underground, writing and publishing.
(b) In the underground, smuggling Jews to safety.
(c) In the Communist Party, writing and publishing.
(d) In the underground, smuggling food.

2. What event did Alpha and Milosz narrowly miss one day as they were returning from the train station?
(a) Being run over by a truck full of Jews bound for Auschwitz.
(b) The outbreak of a street fight.
(c) Being captured in the first man-hunt for Auschwitz.
(d) Being searched by Nazi squads.

3. The most difficult thing for a man of the New Faith to conquer, according to Milosz, is his feeling of what?
(a) Suspicion.
(b) Elation.
(c) Trepidation.
(d) Guilt.

4. Milosz compares the American law system to what image?
(a) A man alone on a log raft.
(b) People in a raft paddling different directions.
(c) A man drowning at sea.
(d) A powerful ship.

5. Why did Alpha eventually become a communist?
(a) He thought it was best for his family.
(b) The party threatened his life.
(c) He had no other choice.
(d) He was tricked into it.

6. According to Chapter 4, as the Polish uprising fought the Nazis for control of Warsaw, what did the Red Army do?
(a) Sent troops to help.
(b) Sided with the Nazis.
(c) Waited in Moscow.
(d) Watched from across the river.

7. As explained in Chapter 1, if a man asks the questions to which the absurd leads him, he reaches what emotional state?
(a) Hatred of himself.
(b) Despair for society.
(c) Hatred of the proletariat.
(d) Hatred of the bourgeois.

8. After the war, how was Alpha was received by Polish communists?
(a) Skeptically.
(b) With hostility.
(c) On the condition he write what they wanted.
(d) With open arms.

9. When a man looks to the West, why does he not have clear insight?
(a) Life in the East has drastically shaped his view.
(b) He cannot be realistic.
(c) The party center obscures the truth.
(d) His emotions interfere.

10. Milosz admits that he has great admiration for what people or force?
(a) The people who bring about change.
(b) The philosophers who prepare the way for change.
(c) The impersonal forces of history.
(d) The people who fight evil.

11. The Multi-Bing pills are most tempting to what type of person?
(a) A peasant.
(b) A worker.
(c) An intellectual.
(d) A merchant.

12. Witkiewicz thought art and philosophy were living out their last days, and how did he see their end?
(a) He found life without them unbearable.
(b) He tried to speed their demise.
(c) He tried to slow their decay.
(d) He couldn't wait until they were gone.

13. In Milosz's experience, how does the East view everything from the West?
(a) Pure.
(b) Evil.
(c) Good.
(d) Unnecessary

14. Chapter 2 notes that though it is good to be free from something, how does freedom become better?
(a) To rest.
(b) To work.
(c) From many things.
(d) For something.

15. Milosz asserts that the man of the New Faith has the greatest fear of what action?
(a) Thinking for others.
(b) Thinking for himself.
(c) Acting based on others' decisions.
(d) Losing the capability to reason.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to the center, contradictions ___________ in the minds of its citizens.

2. During World War II, how did the nearness of death affect the Poles' lives?

3. Alpha's pursuit of purity in his work was driven largely by what characteristic?

4. Dialectical materialism appeals to the Eastern man because it is, in Milosz's term, what?

5. In Witkeiwicz's novel, if man is attuned to the absurd, what does he see?

(see the answer keys)

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