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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why have Mexican culture and politics vacillated from one extreme to another? (Chapter Seven, page 157).
(a) Because Mexicans deny their Spanish and Indian heritage.
(b) Because Mexicans cannot invent their history from the beginning.
(c) Because Mexicans have difficulty synthesizing experiences.
(d) Because there has never been a strong Mexican leader.

2. According to Paz, what philosophical fact defines much of Mexico's history?
(a) They overturned several of Spain's philosophical treatises.
(b) They had only two great thinkers.
(c) The people adopted ideas, but did not invent their own.
(d) The people adopted some ideas and invented others.

3. What metaphor does Paz use to describe Mexico taking control from Spain?
(a) A phoenix rising from the ashes.
(b) A young man finally realizing his strength.
(c) A lion cub overtaking its elderly parent.
(d) A corpse dismembered and a nation born.

4. What should Mexicans recognize about their alienation from the world?
(a) It can be reversed only by a charismatic leader.
(b) It is shared by many people around the world.
(c) It has managed to cut them off completely.
(d) It is unique to their country.

5. According to Paz, what must be the first step toward reform?
(a) A struggle against rampant government corruption.
(b) A struggle against the lie that makes colonialism official.
(c) A complete overthrow of the socialist state.
(d) A return to traditionalism.

6. What was one factor that guided the Revolution to prioritize tradition?
(a) Its belief in the value of the past.
(b) Its fear of the future.
(c) The large number of supporters over the age of 50.
(d) The workers did not belong to the city or the country, and so they did not have any tradition.

7. What happened to the people annexed by greater world powers?
(a) They became more active in the world sphere.
(b) They were forgotten.
(c) The material gains that they made balanced the loss of voice.
(d) They became passive in the world sphere.

8. On what does Paz blame "the rather zigzag progress of the state"? Chapter Eight, page 181).
(a) The conflict between national capitalism and international capitalism.
(b) The difficulty of dealing with a large work force.
(c) The struggle between capitalist ideals and socialism.
(d) The necessity of making revolutionary ideals work for practical living.

9. What economic goal did the Revolution have?
(a) To free Mexico from dependence on Spain.
(b) To improve the commerce that had already been established.
(c) To establish commerce and industry.
(d) To pull the nation out of poverty.

10. How did the Reform want to justify itself?
(a) Through its popularity.
(b) Through the future.
(c) Through its past.
(d) Through its changes.

11. What question did Edmundo O'Gorman try to answer?
(a) What comprises America?
(b) Who are the Mexicans as a people?
(c) What is Mexico?
(d) Where does the future lie?

12. Why does poetry tend to eradicate history? (Chapter Seven).
(a) Because it attempts to explicate history.
(b) Because it transcends history.
(c) Because it disdains history.
(d) Because it does not understand history.

13. How did the Revolution relate to reality?
(a) It was a sheer explosion of reality.
(b) It denied reality.
(c) It brought about a new idea of reality.
(d) It subtly altered the past idea of reality.

14. What horror did Cortez's rule not commit?
(a) Complete annihilation of the native peoples.
(b) Denying the conquered people a place in society.
(c) Forcing indigenous people to speak European Spanish.
(d) Raping the indigenous women.

15. Why was Diaz's regime in a precarious position regarding positivist philosophy?
(a) Because only about half the regime favored the philosophy.
(b) Because the common people vehemently opposed the philosophy.
(c) Because it adopted rather than fathered the philosophy.
(d) Because it could not afford to support such a philosophy when the regime itself was so new.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Paz, why did the Revolution become a compromise?

2. Mexico lacks basic industries except for one - what is it?

3. How did the Aztecs' final struggle manifest itself?

4. Whom did Paz call the "guardian of freedom and traitor to his country"? (Chapter Six, page 125).

5. What did Moctezuma think as the Spaniards approached?

(see the answer keys)

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