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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What common quality can be found in Kafka, Proust and Plotinus?
(a) Pity for suffering.
(b) Nostalgia for childhood.
(c) Nostalgia for a lost paradise.
(d) Rejection of paradise.

2. What does Camus see as an almost inevitable companion to passion?
(a) Struggle.
(b) Conception.
(c) Bliss.
(d) Murder.

3. According to Camus, what is important about the idea that actions have consequences?
(a) It is a basic principle in what is known as 'brain-washing'.
(b) It is a basic principle of child rearing.
(c) It is the principle behind all systems of morality.
(d) It is the basis of the legal system in Muslim countries.

4. What phenomenon can humans have no experience of?
(a) Karma.
(b) Death.
(c) True empathy.
(d) Mind.

5. In The Castle, what is significant about the character Amalia?
(a) She is pregnant.
(b) She is the only character without hope.
(c) She is meant to be a representation of Helen of Troy.
(d) She is a dwarf.

6. Who is the author of Discourses of Edification?
(a) Russell.
(b) Kierkegaard.
(c) Camus.
(d) Sartre.

7. What would make man feel alienated in the universe?
(a) Realization that all work is futile.
(b) The recognition that the universe is infinite.
(c) The realization that the world that can no longer be explained comfortably.
(d) Falling out with relatives and friends.

8. What is Camus' attitude to genius?
(a) It must be nurtured.
(b) It is anti-democratic.
(c) It excuses nothing.
(d) It excuses everything.

9. From what does the writer wish to liberate his universe?
(a) Its absurdity.
(b) Its incoherence.
(c) Its supernovae.
(d) Its phantoms.

10. What is the legendary Faust remembered for?
(a) Selling his soul to the Devil.
(b) Killing his mistress.
(c) As an alchemist.
(d) Living for a very long time.

11. What has Camus to say about Kirilov's reasoning?
(a) It should be the basis of further discussion.
(b) It is rational and therefore necessary.
(c) It is absurd, but it is necessary.
(d) It is ridiculous, but must be considered.

12. How is Oedipus' fate announced?
(a) Supernaturally.
(b) By means of a letter device.
(c) Superbly.
(d) As a result of gossip.

13. What does Camus suggest happens in bad novels?
(a) Thought becomes more important than style.
(b) Dialogue is poorly written and often inappropriate to character.
(c) There is too much emphasis on structure.
(d) There is substantial over-writing, especially with descriptive passages.

14. What factors ought to underpin discussion of the meaning of life?
(a) Common sense and understanding.
(b) Don Quixote and a sense of the absurd.
(c) Common sense and perseverence.
(d) The rebel and his place in history.

15. What is astonishing about eternal values?
(a) That they exist at all.
(b) They survive wars and other conflicts.
(c) The very fact that they exist without reference to God.
(d) They transcend cultural factors.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Camus, what is an important relationship between The Trial and The Castle?

2. According to Camus, what is tiresome about the human attitude to fate?

3. How was the god Mercury involved in the Sisyphus story?

4. Who believed that 'to kill God is to become god oneself'?

5. How does a man define himself?

(see the answer keys)

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