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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did Eliot meet the man who would become her life-long partner?
(a) At church.
(b) At a bookstore.
(c) At a society event.
(d) At the beach.

2. What do biographers often attribute Eliot's messy romantic life to?
(a) The fact that Eliot was an orphan.
(b) The absence of maternal love.
(c) Eliot's extreme shyness.
(d) The fraught relationship Eliot had with her brother.

3. What job did Marshall take right after the end of WWII, even though he did not really want it?
(a) Head of the Red Cross.
(b) Secretary of State.
(c) U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
(d) U.S. Ambassador to China.

4. According to Brooks, what did Augustine seem to believe humans were not capable of?
(a) Being content.
(b) Sinning.
(c) Truly loving another human being.
(d) Ordering their desires on their own.

5. What job does Brooks write that Marshall must have been devastated not to have gotten from Roosevelt?
(a) Secretary of Defense.
(b) Supreme Commander of Operation Overlord in France during WWII.
(c) Secretary of State.
(d) Joint Chiefs of Staff of the military.

6. In Chapter 6, who does Brooks say was the most prominent Civil Rights leader in America at the time the program Command Performance aired?
(a) Nat Turner.
(b) Martin Luther King Jr.
(c) A. Philip Randolph.
(d) Rosa Parks.

7. In what situation was Marshall injured during his college years?
(a) In a hazing ritual.
(b) In a car accident.
(c) In a boating accident.
(d) On a training maneuver.

8. What kind of funeral did Marshall want?
(a) A low-key, humble event with no fanfare.
(b) A funeral with the highest military honors and a fly-over by the Blue Angels.
(c) A huge state funeral.
(d) Marshall wanted to be cremated and buried at sea.

9. What illness did Eliot nurse her mother throughout?
(a) Polio.
(b) Cholera.
(c) Breast cancer.
(d) Typhoid.

10. What fruit symbolized terrible judgment and pointless sin for Augustine?
(a) Cherries.
(b) Pears.
(c) Apples.
(d) Oranges.

11. In Chapter 5, what is a trait Brooks argues is common among modest people who achieve great success?
(a) They are extraordinarily intelligent.
(b) They do not view failure as a negative thing.
(c) They are extraordinarily wealthy.
(d) Someone once told them they were too stupid to do something, and they vowed to prove them wrong.

12. Where did Marshall attend college?
(a) West Point.
(b) Virginia Military Academy.
(c) The Naval Institute.
(d) American University.

13. What tactics did Rustin and other civil rights leaders adopt to try to accomplish their goals?
(a) Attacking police stations.
(b) Non-violent resistance.
(c) Direct confrontation.
(d) Carrying out damage to properties.

14. What is one way in which Brooks defines Eliot?
(a) As a puritan.
(b) As a meliorist.
(c) As an abolitionist.
(d) As a pacifist.

15. What did writer George Eliot say a human life should be well-rooted in?
(a) Charity.
(b) Love.
(c) A spot of native land.
(d) Purpose.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where did Eliot travel on July 20, 1854?

2. Who raised Rustin?

3. Whose house did Eliot live in for a time along with this person's wife?

4. What was George Eliot's given name at birth?

5. What privilege was conferred upon Augustine at a very young age?

(see the answer keys)

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