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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 16, The Final Letters.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What type of good news does Tolkien preview in Letter #185?
(a) Personal.
(b) Financial.
(c) Neither financial nor personal.
(d) Financial and personal.

2. How old is J.R.R. Tolkien in the first letter?
(a) Twenty-one.
(b) Twenty-four.
(c) Eighteen.
(d) Twenty-three.

3. As Tolkien explains in Letter #131, what motivates The Enemy in his stories?
(a) Evil intentions.
(b) Good intentions.
(c) Unknown intentions.
(d) Complicated intentions.

4. In Letter #130, what distinction does Tolkien make about the artificial languages he creates for his books?
(a) They are the opposite of an actual real life language.
(b) They are a combination of two real-life languages.
(c) They are never used in real life.
(d) They are seldom used in real life.

5. What issue does a woman's presence raise for Tolkien in "Publisher Drama"?
(a) Poems vs. short stories.
(b) Published works vs. unpublished works.
(c) Novels vs. poems.
(d) The spoken word vs. the written word.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which school is Tolkien attending when the first letter begins?

2. Based on Tolkien's letter to W.H. Auden, who is responsible for shaping an individual's behavior?

3. In Letter, #6, to what college subject does Tolkien refer?

4. Which versions of The Hobbit earn Tolkien an honorary doctorate, as mentioned in Letter #165?

5. Who are the familiar recipients of the letters of the 1960s that are included in "Later Years"?

(see the answer key)

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