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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When did Alpha became a more religious writer?
(a) When he turned his back on Christianity.
(b) When he became more fully involved in the church.
(c) When he supported the underground Catholic church.
(d) When he scoffed all Catholic writers.

2. Why, as Chapter 2 explains, do Eastern communists look to the West?
(a) The New Faith allows it.
(b) They are curious.
(c) The New Faith cannot satisfy their emotional needs.
(d) The New Faith cannot satisfy their spiritual needs.

3. In Chapter 4, once the Nazis took over a country, how did they treat the printing presses?
(a) They took over the presses to print large volumes of propaganda.
(b) They destroyed the printing presses and offices.
(c) Printing continued as normal.
(d) Almost nothing was printed in that country's language.

4. Every man considers his mode of life as what?
(a) Natural.
(b) Unnatural.
(c) Destined to change.
(d) Necessary.

5. By standards of the East, as compared to the West, how is anyone with talent treated?
(a) He is ignored.
(b) He is put to full use.
(c) He is rejected by the State.
(d) He is allowed to go his own way.

6. As explained in Chapter 2, the party considers _________ one of the highest virtues.
(a) Restraint.
(b) Silence.
(c) Informing.
(d) Compliance.

7. How does the Eastern communist regard everything from the West?
(a) With deep confusion.
(b) With strong criticism.
(c) With loud enthusiasm.
(d) With antipathy.

8. When the Red Army came into Poland in 1945, how were writers treated?
(a) Encouraged, in order to show communism's support of the cultural elite.
(b) Promoted according to their communist sympathies.
(c) Left alone as long as they didn't print anti-communist material.
(d) Killed, to show how communism treats individual thinking.

9. Peasants, in Milosz's understanding, assert what about their lives?
(a) Communism is their only salvation.
(b) They are perfectly happy with their lives.
(c) Feudalism is their only salvation.
(d) Change must come.

10. In the 1940s, once they were freed of the past, how did the Eastern countries think?
(a) They modified capitalism to fit their needs.
(b) They returned to a feudalist system.
(c) They regretted their choice.
(d) They had no choice but the New Faith.

11. What school of thought gave Alpha the tragic language he needed?
(a) Agnosticism.
(b) Capitalism.
(c) Fascism.
(d) Catholicism.

12. At the end of Chapter 3, how does Milosz succinctly define Ketman?
(a) Against something.
(b) In the name of the state.
(c) For the benefit of mankind.
(d) Against the state.

13. The purpose of Chapter 2 is to compare and contrast what two groups?
(a) Communists and capitalists.
(b) Communists and fascists.
(c) Eastern and Western communists.
(d) Eastern Europe with Eastern Asia.

14. The Multi-Bing pills are most tempting to what type of person?
(a) A worker.
(b) A merchant.
(c) A peasant.
(d) An intellectual.

15. Milosz's book The Captive Mind deals with what subject?
(a) What he experienced living in Poland.
(b) Fictional characters.
(c) Society some time in the future.
(d) What he heard about after living in the United States.

Short Answer Questions

1. Fifty years of re-education within the party can change entire nations so that they become what?

2. Alpha's pursuit of purity in his work was driven largely by what characteristic?

3. As seen in Chapter 2, how does the poet of a communist country write?

4. How did Alpha fall into falseness?

5. How prevalent is National Ketman?

(see the answer keys)

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