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

2. In Jose Gaos' thought, what unique opportunity do young people have through their education?
(a) Rebuilding their political system.
(b) Moving Mexico into the world sphere.
(c) Creating their own philosophy.
(d) Modifying Spanish to meet the needs of the South Americans.

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

4. Why did the Mexican Revolution have to begin before the beginning?
(a) The cities were not large enough to house the farmers-turned-workers.
(b) Mexico did not have the basic electricity and resources needed to transform her cities.
(c) The people still held a feudalistic mindset.
(d) In the early 20th Century, Mexico was far behind the advanced world.

5. What has happened to the former plurality of ideas and customs? (Chapter Seven).
(a) It has splintered into even more segments.
(b) It has been replaced by a single civilization.
(c) It has grown to accommodate special-interest groups.
(d) They have become richer.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is one factor that drives world markets?

2. In Asia and Africa, what two seemingly-contradictory ideologies are being used?

3. What is Paz's solution for the lack of capital?

4. What happened to the people annexed by greater world powers?

5. What important circumstance did early revolutionary governments not take into account?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Catholicism reduce the Indian converts into passive believers? How was that a significant blow?

2. Throughout his career, what did Jorge Cuesta argue? What are the benefits and downfalls of his argument?

3. Despite Mexico's advancements, where does she still stand on the world spectrum? How can she change her placement?

4. When did Independence begin in Mexico? How was it similar to or different from the Conquest?

5. How does Paz explain the suicides of the Aztec people? Is it a reasonable explanation?

6. What did Article 3 of the new Constitution mandate? What troubles did that Article cause?

7. What role did Jose Vasconcelos play in modern education? From Paz's descriptions, what is his opinion of Vasconcelos?

8. What is the role of the Mexican intelligentsia within society? How does it differ from the function of the intelligentsia within the United States and Europe; and which one is a better role?

9. Pulling from the ideas of Jose Gaos, Paz, speaks of the physical duality in Mexico. What does that mean? What significance does that idea have?

10. What role did religion play in ancient South American cultures? Did Catholicism change that role?

(see the answer keys)

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