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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why does Marx say that machines could be welcomed into America?
(a) Because the frontier would always be wild.
(b) Because they would tame the vast frontier.
(c) Because there was such sharp competition.
(d) Because industrial capacity provided a survival edge.

2. How does Marx describe the pastoralism of the 19th century?
(a) Modern.
(b) Sentimental.
(c) Romantic.
(d) Industrial.

3. What is Marx's tone throughout 'The Machine in the Garden'?
(a) Scientific and analytical.
(b) Reverential and despairing by turns.
(c) Optimistic and casual.
(d) Analytical and pessimistic.

4. What does Marx point out accompanied factories and progress in transportation?
(a) Longer lifespans.
(b) Increased literacy.
(c) Worker abuses.
(d) Decreased infant mortality rates.

5. What did Emerson's philosophy ultimately propose?
(a) Reconciliation of industry and nature.
(b) Urbanization of nature.
(c) Rejection of industry.
(d) Domestication of nature.

6. What does the Pequod symbolize in Melville's Moby Dick?
(a) Industry.
(b) Spiritual degradation.
(c) Elemental nature.
(d) Modern society.

7. What is Ishmael's task, in Marx's description of Melville's vision in Moby Dick?
(a) To reconcile nature and society.
(b) To restrain Ahab.
(c) To save the ship.
(d) To kill the white whale.

8. What was unique about American manufacturing, in Coxe's view?
(a) The environment would keep it healthy.
(b) The raw materials were limitless.
(c) It presented enormous economic opportunities.
(d) Markets were waiting for American goods.

9. What did Emerson originally propose in his philosophy?
(a) Immersion in society.
(b) Immersion in literature.
(c) Immersion in nature.
(d) Immersion in science.

10. What conclusion about technology does the narrator reach at the end of Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court?
(a) Nature ultimately conquered industrial man.
(b) Progress changes the course of human nature.
(c) Primitive human psychology is inescapable.
(d) Society's benefits do not outweigh its costs.

11. How does industrialism devalue man, in Carlyle's opinion?
(a) It discourages invention.
(b) It uses only one part of him.
(c) It treats him as a commodity.
(d) It requires long hours in dark factories.

12. What type of society was America (in the time of Marx's writing)?
(a) Urban.
(b) Non-agrarian.
(c) Suburban.
(d) Rural.

13. What would manufacturing do for America, in Coxe's estimation?
(a) Unify the electorate.
(b) Generate wealth.
(c) Drive western expansion.
(d) Ensure independence.

14. What part of man remained free of industrialism, in Carlyle's view?
(a) His mind.
(b) His eyes.
(c) None of him.
(d) His spirit.

15. What percentage of Americans lived on farms (in the time of Marx's writing)?
(a) 60%.
(b) 25%.
(c) 40%.
(d) 10%.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Marx say about modern farming (in the time of his writing this book)?

2. How does Marx characterize man's hopes for nature?

3. What still remains in every man, in Marx's account?

4. What did Coxe foresee for America?

5. What else does Marx say about people who live pastoral lives?

(see the answer keys)

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