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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. At the summit of the mountain, the Narrator gets out

2. John puts on his long underwear and plays

3. Phaedrus' stage fright concerning classroom teaching appeared to students as

4. An empiricist is one who believes

5. A motorcycle mechanic

Short Essay Questions

1. A society which kills multitudes in wars, pollutes the land and oceans, and destroys the dignity of individuals is said to be a higher society than one that hunts and gathers. How can that be rationally explained?

2. How does the Narrator know that Phaedrus existed?

3. How did the mechanics who had worked on the Narrator's motorcycle prove that caring about what you are doing is essential to doing it right?

4. What is a priori knowledge and how are time and space examples of a priori knowledge?

5. The Narrator seems to be descending into an abyss as he relates the details of Phaedrus' descent into a full mental breakdown. Why do you think he quit attending the class with the Chairman and then quit teaching his own classes?

6. In Chapter 1, the Narrator says that sometimes when truth knocks on the door you tell it to go away because you are looking for truth. He also introduces the idea of the Chautauqua, saying he will be concerned more with the question of "What is best?" than the question of "What's new?" How are those ideas related to one another?

7. All through chapter 18, Chris pushes himself to keep climbing and to do it at a fairly good rate even though this was his very first mountain climb or even hike into mountains. What was motivating him and why?

8. What reasons did the Narrator (Phaedrus) have for feeling deep kinship with students who were failing his classes? How was he like them? How was he different from them?

9. Falling rock signals the aging and crumbling of the mountain. These small rockfalls serve as warnings. The Narrator, unlike Phaedrus, is able to heed warnings. How does the Narrator heed the warnings both physically and psychologically at this time?

10. The Narrator says: "If you want to build a factory, or fix a motorcycle, or set a nation right without getting stuck, then classical, structured, dualistic subject-object knowledge, although necessary, isn't enough." What does he mean?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is egotism? In what ways can egotism blind a person to quality? How can egotism get in the way of a person's spiritual journey to understand himself? How was egotism the beginning of all of Phaerus' troubles?

Essay Topic 2

The allegory of a physical mountain for a spiritual one is quite common in religious literature. In what ways can the Narrator's journey to reconnect with himself be compared to climbing a mountain?

Essay Topic 3

Various types of evidence can be used as proof of something. Hard evidence of having gone to a concert would be the ticket stub. Memories of what was sung at the concert would be another type of evidence. Intuition that proves true about the best parking spot for the concert is a third type of evidence. Give one example of each of four ways in which the Narrator knows that Phaedrus existed.

(see the answer keys)

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