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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How was Delta's cheerful poetry treated?
(a) Scorned by the party as sentimental.
(b) Mocked by the public.
(c) Put to good use by the party.
(d) Ignored by the party.

2. In light of Beta's poetry, how does Milosz treat the modern artist's potential?
(a) He is condemned to inactivity.
(b) He follows the artistic traditions of former eras.
(c) He can never know rest or inactivity.
(d) He works best without established equilibrium.

3. In the concentration camp, what kind of life does Beta lead?
(a) Healthy and well-dressed, and brags about it.
(b) Healthy and well-dressed, but cannot escape his guilt.
(c) With experiences which he never talks about afterward.
(d) Hungry and miserable, but happy to be alive.

4. How did Delta return to his wife in Poland?
(a) Completely sober.
(b) With a girlfriend he'd brought from Brussels.
(c) With a girl he'd picked up at the Polish border.
(d) Without a single penny.

5. At a fairly young age, how did Beta die?
(a) By suicide.
(b) By an unknown assassin.
(c) At the hands of the Nazis.
(d) At the hands of the communists.

6. Why did Delta begin to write violently anti-Semitic poems?
(a) He cared more about his audience than about the content.
(b) The Communist Party commanded him to write them.
(c) He cared deeply about the political change going on around him.
(d) He had begun to think along those lines.

7. In Chapter 8, Milosz explains that the totalitarian states places such emotional strain on its citizens that what occurs?
(a) The people cannot be responsible for their actions.
(b) They will cease to think for themselves.
(c) The strain itself determines their actions.
(d) They cannot survive long as individuals.

8. Beta described the concentration camp as he saw it; how should he have described it?
(a) As the Soviets wanted him to see it.
(b) As the Nazis intended.
(c) As the liberating American saw it.
(d) As it really was.

9. How can the relationship between Gamma and the author be described?
(a) A love affair.
(b) A deep friendship.
(c) An acquaintanceship.
(d) A game.

10. Because the Communist Party was at first illegal in Poland, what did party members do?
(a) Bided their time until communism had gained a stronger footing.
(b) Tried to sway public opinion with writers who were sympathetic to communism.
(c) Had no choice but to rebel against the laws.
(d) Were forced to work only through underground means.

11. In the people's democracies, according the Chapter 8, what does the most serious battle concern?
(a) Manipulation of historical context.
(b) The balance of power.
(c) Control of man's spirit.
(d) Control of man's mind.

12. The last time Milosz saw Beta, how did the unassuming poet look?
(a) He had become an outspoken adversary of communism.
(b) He had become self-assured and thoroughly political.
(c) He had become even more afraid, following his time in the concentration camp.
(d) He hadn't changed.

13. Why do Party dialecticians change the Method when necessary?
(a) They are forced to modernize.
(b) History has destroyed all other formulae which claim to be unerring.
(c) Reality proves the Method to be unworkable.
(d) They want to stay one step ahead of the reactionaries.

14. While talking to Beker, who is about to be burned at the crematorium because he is too weak to work, what is Beta's attitude?
(a) Agitated and sad.
(b) Malicious.
(c) Fearful of his own life.
(d) Calm and detached.

15. How much time did Beta spend in the concentration camp Auschwitz?
(a) Two months.
(b) Two years.
(c) The rest of his life.
(d) Three years.

Short Answer Questions

1. Chapter 6 opens with a picture of Vilna, which is a city of __________ .

2. What view of Poland's past did Delta's poetry present?

3. Beta wrote poems characterized by what?

4. As detailed in Chapter 6, what was the first maxim of the communist rule as it established power in a newly-conquered country?

5. Why did Beta's writing assert that communism was salvation?

(see the answer keys)

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