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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In addition to being a religious leader, Rumi was a what?
(a) Soldier.
(b) Physician.
(c) Scholar.
(d) Gardener.

2. The poem "On Being A Lover" is written in what format?
(a) Song of lament by a woman who has lost her lover.
(b) Question and answer session between a man and a woman.
(c) Recollection by an old man of his younger years.
(d) Diary entry of a man who has lost his lover.

3. In many of Rumi's poems, not only in Book 1, Chapter 2, but throughout the whole book, his distinction between "me" and "you" is what?
(a) Vague.
(b) Clear.
(c) Solid.
(d) Humorous.

4. When was Rumi born?
(a) October 20, 1390.
(b) September 30, 1207.
(c) November 26, 1119.
(d) December 15, 1461.

5. When did Coleman Barks first become interested in Rumi's poetry?
(a) 1976.
(b) 1969.
(c) 1985.
(d) 1952.

6. In a poem in Book 1, Chapter 2, several men invade a city because they are driven by what?
(a) Sexual attraction.
(b) A mad dictator.
(c) Their egos.
(d) Greed and hate.

7. In the book, Coleman Barks is the author of what?
(a) Appendix.
(b) Conclusion.
(c) Chapter Three.
(d) Introduction.

8. Rumi speaks of two distinct types of intelligence. One is cultivated from books and the other is what?
(a) Pre-existing within a person.
(b) Learned in the streets.
(c) Unattainable.
(d) Reserved for the highest masters.

9. In the poem "Meadowsounds," Rumi devotes two lines to:
(a) Husam.
(b) Ayaz.
(c) Hallej.
(d) Shams.

10. When the man in a poem in Book 1, Chapter 2 accidentally soils himself, what does his host and friend do?
(a) Laughs loudly and humiliates the man.
(b) Launders the garments and helps the man feel better.
(c) Leaves for three days while his servants clean the home.
(d) Evicts him from his home.

11. In a poem in Book 1, Chapter 2, when a city is taken by siege, what happens to one of the invaders?
(a) Is taken prisoner immediately.
(b) Falls in love instantly.
(c) Becomes a double agent.
(d) Is tricked and poisoned.

12. When Coleman Barks first started reading Rumi's works, what types of words turned him away?
(a) Love and hate.
(b) Life and death.
(c) Heart and soul.
(d) Shame and guilt.

13. What post did Rumi inherit?
(a) Scribe.
(b) Treasurer.
(c) Sheik.
(d) King.

14. In the end, what does the character Ayaz do in a poem in Book 1, Chapter 3?
(a) Hides in fear.
(b) Runs away.
(c) Obeys the King.
(d) Refuses to obey the King.

15. When speaking of sugar and vinegar, Rumi notes that a spoonful of vinegar:
(a) Cannot compare to the sweetness of a spoonful of sugar.
(b) Is more valuable than a pound of sugar.
(c) Loses its potency in several pounds of sugar.
(d) Destroys a spoonful of sugar.

Short Answer Questions

1. At times, God appears in Rumi's poems as a presence and at other times God is compared to:

2. In the poems about an unlikely friendship between two different animals, one of them being a frog, these two animals have very different what?

3. Rumi asserts that the union between a man and a woman has what associated with it?

4. Rumi's works are deeply:

5. After Shams went away the first time, how did he return?

(see the answer keys)

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