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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What society was Ramanujan elected to?
(a) Phi Beta Kappa.
(b) The Academy of Sciences.
(c) The Royal Society.
(d) The Apostles.

2. What cultural practice did Ramanujan insist on, in Kanigel's account?
(a) Daily prayers.
(b) Vegetarianism.
(c) Visiting Hindu shrines.
(d) Animal sacrifice.

3. What did Ramanujan's Master Theorem attempt to do?
(a) Reduce infinite series to prime numbers.
(b) Integrate finite integrals.
(c) Formulate number theory.
(d) Solve Fermat's Last Theorem.

4. What did Hardy decide after conferring with John Littlewood?
(a) That Ramanujan was dangerous.
(b) That Ramanujan was a small thinker.
(c) That Ramanujan was a genius.
(d) That Ramanujan was unstable.

5. What conflict did Ramanujan return to?
(a) His parents with his in-laws.
(b) His mother and father.
(c) His wife and his mother.
(d) His father and the authorities.

6. Who met Ramanujan in England?
(a) Euler.
(b) Hardy.
(c) John Littlewood.
(d) Neville.

7. How does Kanigel describe Ramanujan's relationship with his wife?
(a) Almost non-existent.
(b) Hostile.
(c) Intimate.
(d) Friendly.

8. What are partitions in math?
(a) The divisions between theorems and proofs.
(b) The distinctions between prime numbers and other numbers.
(c) The number of ways to arrive at a number.
(d) The separation between rational and irrational numbers.

9. How did Ramanujan see himself socially, according to Kanigel?
(a) As a Brahmin.
(b) As a mathematician.
(c) As a celebrity.
(d) As a citizen.

10. What did Ramanujan say he was willing to do in order to come to England?
(a) Be cast out of his Brahmin class.
(b) Work for Hardy.
(c) Borrow money.
(d) Abandon his wife.

11. How much of Ramanujan's work did Hardy believe was sound and original?
(a) Half to three quarters.
(b) Five to ten percent.
(c) Almost all of it.
(d) One to two thirds.

12. What did NOT contribute to Ramanujan's discomfort during the sea voyage to England?
(a) Homesickness.
(b) The strangers.
(c) Seasickness.
(d) The temperatures.

13. How does Kanigel describe Ramanujan as a mathematical thinker?
(a) Classicist.
(b) Radical.
(c) Constructivist.
(d) Formalist.

14. Who did Ramanujan stay with in England?
(a) John Littlewood.
(b) Euler.
(c) Hardy.
(d) Neville.

15. What was the doctor's prescription for Ramanujan's condition?
(a) Surgery.
(b) Radiation.
(c) Rest and care.
(d) Physical activity.

Short Answer Questions

1. How do people account for Ramanujan's self-assessment?

2. How does Kanigel characterize Ramanujan's theorems and formulas?

3. To what extent does Kanigel say Ramanujan blended in with Cambridge society?

4. What did Ramanujan and Hardy develop for working with partitions?

5. What practice does Kanigel say Ramanujan had difficulty adjusting to in England?

(see the answer keys)

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