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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 was it that offended Ramanujan when he invited some friends to dinner?
(a) The friends wanted to use silverware.
(b) The women declined a third helping.
(c) The men used salt.
(d) The friends criticized his cooking.

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

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

4. What was the result of Ramanujan clinging to his cultural practices?
(a) He taught English students how to cook Indian dishes.
(b) He remained an outsider.
(c) He brought Indian culture to English intellectuals.
(d) He generated fear and hostility in those around him.

5. How does Kanigel describe the value of Ramanujan's discovery?
(a) It predicts the behavior of certain celestial bodies.
(b) It has yet to be disproved.
(c) It revised several major mathematic theorems.
(d) It is still used today.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Kanigel say Ramanujan passed his time on the ship?

2. What did Littlewood and Hardy see as mathematically important?

3. Where did Ramanujan move to?

4. What is the state of Ramanujan's work now?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What was Ramanujan's response when Hardy asked him for proofs?

2. What did Ramanujan discover when P. C. Mahalanobis read him a puzzle one evening?

3. What cultural practices did Ramanujan hold on to from India?

4. Ramanujan kept extensive notes of his thinking. What was in Ramanujan's notebooks, and how much of his work was valuable, according to Kanigel?

5. What was Ramanujan's condition when he returned to India?

6. What problem kept Ramanujan from coming to England, as Hardy hoped he would?

7. Where did Ramanujan go when he reached England?

8. What was Ramanujan's Master Theorem intended to do?

9. What problems did Ramanujan have on account of his Indian cultural practices?

10. What did Hardy do with Ramanujan's letter?

(see the answer keys)

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