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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 2 Mexican Masks.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did Paz consider his philosophical questions?
(a) As meaningful only if they addressed the question of Mexican identity.
(b) As a waste of time.
(c) As an excuse for not facing reality.
(d) As the only means to find answers.

2. Through dissimulation, what does a Mexican attempt to do?
(a) Share his individuality with others to make it real.
(b) Withdraw from society to save his individuality.
(c) Become invisible and save his individuality.
(d) Become himself in contradistinction to others.

3. What does the pachuco represent in Paz's writing?
(a) The modern-day religious saint.
(b) One step along the path that a Mexican can take.
(c) One extreme at which the Mexican can arrive.
(d) The typical Mexican living in North American culture.

4. In Paz's thought, what does a study of the great myths reveal?
(a) Man will never truly be saved.
(b) Man has broken the order of the universe.
(c) Man will continually become better than he is now.
(d) Man can only be saved by something other than himself.

5. What is Paz's opinion about the physical features distinguishing Mexicans from North Americans?
(a) They are more important than commonly believed.
(b) People are too distracted by them.
(c) People do not understand their significance.
(d) They are not as important as commonly believed.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the Mexican value in art, religion, and politics?

2. Paz discusses the result of persecution on the pachuco. What is that result?

3. Why are a woman's instincts those of a species rather than her own?

4. On which group of people were Paz's thoughts focused?

5. When Paz first arrived in the United States, what surprised him most about the people?

(see the answer key)

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