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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Aesthetic Ketman spreads because the citizens crave what aspect of daily life?
(a) Superficiality.
(b) Sameness.
(c) Similarity.
(d) Strangeness.

2. When did Alpha became a more religious writer?
(a) When he supported the underground Catholic church.
(b) When he turned his back on Christianity.
(c) When he scoffed all Catholic writers.
(d) When he became more fully involved in the church.

3. At the end of Chapter 3, how does Milosz succinctly define Ketman?
(a) Against something.
(b) Against the state.
(c) For the benefit of mankind.
(d) In the name of the state.

4. Milosz says that an individual has no more significance to the muse of history than what object?
(a) An atom in space.
(b) An instrument in an orchestra.
(c) A weed in a field.
(d) A cog in a machine.

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

6. Milosz ends Chapter I with the question:
(a) How long until man accepts the party?
(b) How long must communism continue?
(c) What else could man ask for?
(d) What the devil does a man need?

7. As explained in Chapter 2, the party considers _________ one of the highest virtues.
(a) Restraint.
(b) Informing.
(c) Silence.
(d) Compliance.

8. Every man considers his mode of life as what?
(a) Unnatural.
(b) Natural.
(c) Destined to change.
(d) Necessary.

9. During World War II, how did the nearness of death affect the Poles' lives?
(a) It destroyed all sense of shame.
(b) It instilled terror.
(c) It made them ambivalent to the future.
(d) It created a daily thankfulness for life.

10. Within communist countries, it is not important what a man says but:
(a) Who hears him.
(b) How he says it.
(c) What he wanted to say.
(d) How it is received.

11. According to Milosz, nations which have recently come under communist rule feel excitement at first, and then feel what emotion?
(a) Sadness for the loss of their autonomy.
(b) That they've been lied to about the government.
(c) Trepidation for their unknown future.
(d) That they've been caught in a trap like mice.

12. The center planned that all Eastern European countries would speak which language?
(a) Polish.
(b) Russian.
(c) Lithuanian.
(d) Czechoslovakian.

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

14. Defining good and evil outside of party interests is what type of Ketman?
(a) Ethical Ketman.
(b) Aesthetic Ketman.
(c) Metaphysical Ketman.
(d) Sceptical Ketman.

15. The "accidental unmaskings of Ketman," Chapter 3, are called _________ .
(a) Derivations.
(b) Perpetuations.
(c) Hallucinations.
(d) Deviations.

Short Answer Questions

1. In 1932, Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz wrote a book entitled what?

2. What do the Party dialecticians assert about art?

3. In seeking a strong heroic element, what character/s did Alpha's second novel choose?

4. By standards of the East, as compared to the West, how is anyone with talent treated?

5. Milosz illustrates Ketman with the example of what person?

(see the answer keys)

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