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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. Who was absent from the dock when Ramanujan's ship came in?

4. What other Indian thinker does Kanigel compare Ramanujan's experience with?

5. Based on his letter, what was Hardy trying to determine about Ramanujan?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what way was Ramanujan's experience of England similar to Ghandi's?

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

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

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

5. What was the conflict between Ramanujan's family and his wife?

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

7. Describe Ramanujan's trip to England.

8. How was Ramanujan treated on his return to India?

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

10. How much did Ramanujan's bride share in his mathematical life?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Ramanujan was never a teacher, just a theoretical mathematician. Describe the role of researcher and evaluate its benefit to Ramanujan: was it good for him? Would he have been happy or miserable as a teacher?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the importance of illness and bad health on Ramanujan's life. How did it shape his personality and his intellect? How did it weaken him? How did it strengthen him?

Essay Topic 3

Describe the intersection the British culture of secret society and prestige with Ramanujan's culture of Brahmin prestige and privilege. How much did these cultures clash in Ramanujan's experience? How did they work together?

(see the answer keys)

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