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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 becomes of people who live a quiet, private life which incites neither anger nor envy?
(a) They remain safe.
(b) They are bored.
(c) They accomplish nothing.
(d) They are stoned.

2. According to Seneca in Letter LXXXVIII, what should man not strive to become?
(a) A religious man.
(b) A good man.
(c) A learned man.
(d) A pleasant man.

3. What phrase best sums up Letter XCI?
(a) The early bird catches the worm.
(b) If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
(c) Never look back.
(d) Expect the unexpected.

4. What tends to either not last very long or to at least have periods of subsidence?
(a) Marriages.
(b) Severe pains.
(c) Studies of other philosophies.
(d) Grief.

5. Why does Seneca move to the country?
(a) To be closer to Lucilius.
(b) For the health benefits of fresh air.
(c) To be farther from the corruptness of Rome.
(d) To get out of the greedy city of Croton.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who says there are four causes?

2. According to his criticism in Letter CVIII, what does Seneca say literary scholars do with philosophical theories?

3. How can a person be prepared for any tragedy that might happen?

4. Whose first instinct is it to incorporate wisdom into his life and actions?

5. Who wrote the Iliad?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Seneca say about people who have an excessive concern with pain?

2. What does Seneca say causes envy and how can envy be avoided?

3. How, according to Letter LXXXIII, does Seneca spend his day?

4. What does Plato add to Aristotle's theory of causation?

5. According to Seneca, what destroyed man's harmonic relationship with nature and what was the result?

6. What is the concept of causation according to Aristotle?

7. How does Seneca feel about moving to improve studies?

8. How, according to Seneca, are life and philosophy both the gifts of the gods?

9. Which city burned and how did it affect Seneca?

10. What is the purpose of technology, according to Seneca?

(see the answer keys)

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