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

2. 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) Waited in Moscow.
(c) Sent troops to help.
(d) Sided with the Nazis.

3. Milosz's book The Captive Mind deals with what subject?
(a) What he experienced living in Poland.
(b) Society some time in the future.
(c) Fictional characters.
(d) What he heard about after living in the United States.

4. As seen in Chapter 2, how does the poet of a communist country write?
(a) As himself.
(b) As an ideal citizen.
(c) Exactly what the state tells him.
(d) For the marching soldiers.

5. In Chapter 4, once the Nazis took over a country, how did they treat the printing presses?
(a) Almost nothing was printed in that country's language.
(b) They destroyed the printing presses and offices.
(c) Printing continued as normal.
(d) They took over the presses to print large volumes of propaganda.

Short Answer Questions

1. Citizens of communist countries become adept in what skill, according to Milosz?

2. Milosz says that an individual has no more significance to the muse of history than what object?

3. After the war, how was Alpha was received by Polish communists?

4. How does Metaphysical Ketman treat man's mind?

5. Cosmopolitanism, as defined by communism, is what thought?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is it important that man not only be free from something but also for something?

2. Why, according to party policy, can there be no contradictions in the minds of Soviet citizens?

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

4. What is historic fatalism and how does it affect even a man's most personal interactions?

5. The East uses talented artists to their full ability, yet sometimes with mediocre results. Why does this happen?

6. As the new way comes into power, it cannot eradicate the old way all at once. Why not?

7. From several references to Tito throughout Chapters 2 and 3, what can the reader infer about him? What does the center gain by making an example of him?

8. Why, in the end, could Alpha make only one decision about joining the party?

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

10. .How did Alpha become a more religious writer when he turned away from Christianity?

(see the answer keys)

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