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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. In a communist country, what is perhaps the best way to ensure one's safety?
(a) To become known as a spy.
(b) To loudly proclaim Russia's pre-eminence.
(c) To keep one's opinions quiet.
(d) To join with like-minded people.

2. How do the inhabitants of communist countries appear?
(a) Mostly Aryan, following the decimation of the Jewish population in World War II.
(b) Predominantly tall and well-dressed.
(c) Uniformly short and stocky.
(d) Diverse according to their racial heritages.

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

4. Russian engineers and doctors ________ Western innovations.
(a) Sell.
(b) Anticipate.
(c) Ignore.
(d) Copy.

5. Art and literature of the party prove to the intellectual that what is true about the world?
(a) Only Western influence can change things.
(b) Only the party can change things.
(c) Things can be different if he works hard enough.
(d) Things cannot be different than they are.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Milosz admits that he has great admiration for what people or force?

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

4. Multi-Bing pills establish ________ foundations rather than _________ .

5. As explained in Chapter 1, if a man asks the questions to which the absurd leads him, he reaches what emotional state?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does man find such joy in the "collective warmth" of which Milosz speaks?

2. What is the difference between Eastern and Western Communists?

3. The pill takes away man's metaphysical concerns--why is this significant?

4. If an artist disagrees with the dialectical method, he debates the question with a panel of Party authorities and always, undoubtedly loses. Why is this so?

5. Why is the Ketman of revolutionary purity the most rare form of Ketman?

6. Although only a couple presses were kept intact, in order to print Nazi propaganda, the underground writing flourished. Why?

7. "If something exists in one place, it will exist everywhere" (pg. 29). Why does the man in destroyed Warsaw believe this, and how does it affect his spirit?

8. Why does aesthetic Ketman flourish, when nothing of the sort is necessary in other countries?

9. The Red Army had no reason to help Warsaw in its battle against the Nazis. Why was this true, and how did it set the stage for the new communist government?

10. How does Ketman create pride in the man who practices it?

(see the answer keys)

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