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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 activity does the author most often engage in when he is avoiding work?
(a) Riding his bike.
(b) Online shopping.
(c) Doing yard work.
(d) Baking.

2. The author states, “It’s kind of amazing, when you think about it, that the world would be set up this way: that the path you embark on to relieve yourself of suffering would, if pursued assiduously, lead you to become not just a happier person but a person with a clearer view of" (263) what two types of reality?
(a) Universal and accepted.
(b) Moral and ethical.
(c) Metaphysical and spiritual.
(d) Metaphysical and moral.

3. What does the lizard represent at the meditation retreat attended by the author?
(a) Oneness.
(b) Belief.
(c) Loving kindness.
(d) Awareness.

4. The author states that rather than seeing the world as hopeless and empty, enlightened and otherwise accomplished meditators see each individual object, person, and experience as empty in the sense that it does not have a preset what?
(a) Truth.
(b) Worth.
(c) Value.
(d) Connotation.

5. The author states that the idea of enlightenment is to take what action in regard to one's delusions?
(a) To obscure them.
(b) To lose them.
(c) To remember them.
(d) To define them.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the acronym RAIN stand for?

2. Which of the following examples is used by the author to demonstrate that human brains are not foolproof?

3. Within which type of psychology have scientists learned that people can judge each other quickly through non-verbal communication?

4. The author states that what elements are just tools to help the brain sort the importance of various thoughts?

5. The author states that what element only acts as a proxy between various feelings?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain the emptiness doctrine presented by the author within the chapter entitled Encounters with the Formless.

2. What does the author mean when he claims that humans are essentialists?

3. What is the RAIN technique discussed by the author and how can it help quell a harmful urge?

4. How does the author use the example of weeds and flowers to make a point about emptiness?

5. What connection does the author make between awareness and control and how is paradox used within the author's discussion of this connection?

6. What is one method the author suggests for a way to observe one's thoughts objectively?

7. What emotion is one of the most studied in relation to the phenomenon of modules governing behavior and why?

8. How does the author characterize the emotion of jealousy?

9. Discuss the author's perspective of how indulging one's craving once can lead to future indulgences?

10. In what way is Robert Wright's writing style self-referential?

(see the answer keys)

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