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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. How does Lu Hsun's work create trouble for him?
(a) His work caused him to be ridiculed by members of his home town.
(b) His work is criticized by the Communist government.
(c) His work revealed that he had a mistress, causing his wife to leave him.
(d) His work revealed money laundering schemes that led to his arrest.

2. What does Tanizaki talk about in "In Praise of Shadows?"
(a) The horror of blindness.
(b) The birth of his daughter.
(c) The intensity of beauty.
(d) The dying of the old ways.

3. Henry David Thoreau is well known as being what?
(a) A nonconformist.
(b) A humorist.
(c) A racist.
(d) A Communist.

4. What is unusual about the essay "Once a Tramp, Always...?"
(a) It contains a coded message if deciphered.
(b) It is written half in Spanish and half in English.
(c) It contains lewd illustrations.
(d) It includes food recipes.

5. How did Virginia Woolf die?
(a) She was run over by an automobile.
(b) She drowned herself.
(c) Of old age.
(d) She was shot by a jealous lover.

Short Answer Questions

1. What event starts the essay, "On Running After One's Hat?"

2. Who wrote "The Death of the Moth?"

3. When was Walter Benjamin Born?

4. Under what circumstances did Walter Benjamin die?

5. Who wrote "How to Start to Write?"

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the important events in Lu Hsun's life that impacted his personal essays.

2. What kind of literature did Virginia Woolf write? What was a common focus that united her work?

3. What is Junichiro Tanizaki's contribution to world literature? How has Tanizaki's writing style been characterized?

4. What is Orwell's "Such, Such Were the Joys..." about? What complaints does Orwell have about the subject?

5. What is the subject of E.B. White's "Once More to the Lake"? What is the message White relays about the state of the lake?

6. What is Ivan Turgenev's opinion of capital punishment? How did Turgenev believe servants should be treated?

7. What two works of G. K. Chesterton are included in this volume? What are the subjects of these essays?

8. What level of literary output did G. K. Chesterton achieve in his lifetime?

9. What subject dominated the writings of George Orwell? Name three specific things George Orwell wrote about.

10. What style is James Thurber known for? What was a common theme in Thurber's writing?

(see the answer keys)

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