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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Merton write in his draft papers?
(a) That he won't go into the military because he is religious.
(b) That he can't argue there is no just war.
(c) That he must receive a teaching exemption.
(d) That he is ready to fight the enemy.

2. What sin is Merton most concerned with when he begins to write poetry?
(a) Avarice.
(b) Pride.
(c) Lust.
(d) Gluttony.

3. What is Merton looking for in his choice of a religious Order?
(a) He wants an Order that is located near his university.
(b) He wants an Order that gives him solitude and silence.
(c) He prefers an Order that allows him to converse with lay people.
(d) He wants an Order that will let him join the war effort.

4. What behavior characterizes Merton's life while he is teaching?
(a) He tells everyone he knows that he wants to be a priest.
(b) He schedules his life as if he were a monk in a monastery.
(c) He works during the day and goes to bars at night.
(d) He no longer prays daily.

5. How many countries has Merton lived in by the time war breaks out?
(a) Five .
(b) Six.
(c) Three.
(d) Four.

6. What makes Merton unhappy while he is teaching?
(a) He wants to visit with his close friends, but they have been drafted.
(b) He wants to visit Europe, but doesn't have the money.
(c) He yearns to be a priest, but is told he doesn't have a vocation.
(d) He wants to go on retreat, but can't decide where to go.

7. What does Merton neglect to mention to the abbot?
(a) His philosophical doubts.
(b) His travels to Rome.
(c) His academic ranking at the university.
(d) The sins of his past.

8. What religious order does Merton first consider joining?
(a) The Dominicans.
(b) The Franciscans.
(c) The Jesuits.
(d) The Templars.

9. Who does Merton talk to when he first starts to tell people he wants to be a priest?
(a) Robert Lax.
(b) Dan Walsh.
(c) Mark Van Doren.
(d) Ed Rice.

10. When does John Paul die?
(a) December, 1940.
(b) September, 1941.
(c) June, 1944.
(d) April, 1943.

11. What sends Merton into a frustrating "holding pattern"?
(a) Discovering that his friends had sabotaged him in his desire to be a priest.
(b) Being told that he must wait to find a teaching job until the next year.
(c) Finding out that he was taken off the waiting list at St. Bonaventure.
(d) Being told to withdraw his application to the monastery and that he has no vocation to be a priest.

12. Why does Merton go to Friendship House often?
(a) He wants recognition for his work.
(b) He needs the support of those who really loved Christ.
(c) He wants to be useful as a layperson.
(d) He needs to be around women.

13. What does Merton desire just before going to Olean?
(a) To teach religion at the university.
(b) To become a parish priest.
(c) A retreat from the world into solitude and contemplation.
(d) A meeting with congenial friends.

14. What is Our Lady of Gethsemani?
(a) A statue in a church.
(b) A monastery in Kentucky.
(c) A monastery in Ohio.
(d) A church in New York.

15. What does Merton never consider once he becomes a monk?
(a) Talking to his brother.
(b) Becoming an abbot.
(c) Leaving the monastery.
(d) Teaching other monks.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Merton think of Father Edmund's recommendation to apply to the order in August of 1940?

2. Who suggests that Merton withdraw his application for the novitiate?

3. Where is Merton's brother during the time Merton is at Friendship House?

4. Where does Merton get a job as a teacher?

5. What were growing interests for Merton in Olean?

(see the answer keys)

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