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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Into what is man split according to Emerson in the epigraph to Part 11?
(a) Half his biology, half his spirit.
(b) Half himself, half his expression.
(c) Half himself, half his spouse.
(d) Half his history, half his opportunity.

2. When did Goethe finish Faust?
(a) 1848.
(b) 1812.
(c) 1776.
(d) 1832.

3. In what way is Moby Dick NOT a novel according to Boorstin?
(a) It lacks metaphor and allegory.
(b) It lacks historical attributes.
(c) It lacks antagonism and heroism.
(d) It lacks characterization and plot.

4. How does Boorstin characterize "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"?
(a) The last Medieval chanson.
(b) The first modernist poem.
(c) The first post-modern poem.
(d) The first confessional poem.

5. Where does Boorstin say Kafka's charm is to be found?
(a) In his affection for his own demise.
(b) In his restraint from suicide.
(c) In his ambiguity.
(d) In his absurdism.

6. How does Koestler characterize creativity in the epigraph to Book 3?
(a) As a new language.
(b) As a new discipline.
(c) As a new form of philosophy.
(d) As a new form of learning.

7. What did Kafka believe about the inner and outer selves according to Boorstin?
(a) They ran in separate ways.
(b) They were mutually exclusive.
(c) They were bent on destroying each other.
(d) They were capable of mystical harmonies.

8. What is the relationship between teacher and learner according to the Koestler quote in the epigraph to Book 3?
(a) They are the same person.
(b) The learner has more anxiety than ever.
(c) The learner has more opportunity than ever.
(d) The teacher has less authority than earlier.

9. How does Boorstin characterize the Heroic American Literary Myth?
(a) A tale of morality and sacrifice.
(b) A tale of shining visions fulfilled.
(c) A tale of revenge and madness.
(d) A tale of brutality and crude mysticism.

10. What does Boorstin say Giotto di Bondone was the first Western artist to do?
(a) Depict the human nude.
(b) Bring Christian archetypes to life.
(c) Tell stories in paintings.
(d) Include text in his paintings.

11. To what does Melville say the sea and land are analogous in the epigraph to Part 12?
(a) The self.
(b) The soul.
(c) Civilization.
(d) God.

12. Where was the skyscraper born?
(a) London.
(b) San Francisco.
(c) New York.
(d) Chicago.

13. What history did Prescott and Parkman write?
(a) Of the literary accomplishments Europeans brought to America.
(b) Of European conquest of Native Americans.
(c) Of the future unification of mankind.
(d) Of the coming technological changes in Western culture.

14. What does Chaucer say in the epigraph to Part 8?
(a) That life is short and craft is hard to learn.
(b) That history is made on the backs of common men.
(c) That a liar is the most honest of men.
(d) That the lives of the common people are themselves art.

15. In Boorstin's account, Michelangelo changed man from an imitation of nature to what?
(a) A perfection of nature.
(b) An example for nature.
(c) The measure of nature.
(d) A recreation of nature.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Boorstin say was combined in the skyscraper?

2. For what does Boorstin say skyscrapers were first used?

3. Why did Dickens leave the public sphere?

4. How does Boorstin characterize the form of Whitman's poetry?

5. How many paintings does Boorstin say da Vinci left?

(see the answer keys)

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