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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did Ramanujan say he was willing to do in order to come to England?
(a) Borrow money.
(b) Be cast out of his Brahmin class.
(c) Abandon his wife.
(d) Work for Hardy.

2. What was Ramanujan's intention when he returned home?
(a) To teach in India.
(b) Never to return to England.
(c) To bring his wife back to England.
(d) To stay in India for a few years.

3. Based on his letter, what was Hardy trying to determine about Ramanujan?
(a) How he had devised his theories.
(b) Who his teachers had been.
(c) Whether he was a crank.
(d) Where he was from.

4. What is the state of Ramanujan's work now?
(a) Completely published and evaluated.
(b) Fragmentary.
(c) Not completely collected.
(d) Not completely published.

5. In his letter to Hardy, what did Ramanujan say he had discovered?
(a) A mistake in Hardy's theorems.
(b) A solution to a problem Hardy proposed.
(c) A theory of relativity.
(d) A function for using irrational numbers in multi-variable calculus.

6. What was the doctor's diagnosis of Ramanujan's illness?
(a) Tuberculosis.
(b) Cancer.
(c) Depression.
(d) Heart disease.

7. Who is NOT included in the list of people who have benefited from Ramanujan's work, in Kanigel's account?
(a) Engineers.
(b) Physicists.
(c) Computer scientists.
(d) Surgeons.

8. To what extent does Kanigel say Ramanujan blended in with Cambridge society?
(a) He remained hostile to it.
(b) Thoroughly.
(c) He was always in between cultures.
(d) Not very much.

9. How does Kanigel describe Ramanujan's dress?
(a) Traditional Indian dress.
(b) A unique brand of slovenliness all his own.
(c) A hybrid of Indian and English.
(d) English dress.

10. How did Ramanujan see himself socially, according to Kanigel?
(a) As a mathematician.
(b) As a citizen.
(c) As a celebrity.
(d) As a Brahmin.

11. What was the result of Ramanujan clinging to his cultural practices?
(a) He generated fear and hostility in those around him.
(b) He taught English students how to cook Indian dishes.
(c) He remained an outsider.
(d) He brought Indian culture to English intellectuals.

12. How was Ramanujan treated on his return?
(a) As an outcast.
(b) As an untouchable.
(c) As an exile.
(d) As a celebrity.

13. What was the doctor's prescription for Ramanujan's condition?
(a) Rest and care.
(b) Radiation.
(c) Physical activity.
(d) Surgery.

14. What does Kanigel say was Ramanujan's greatest talent?
(a) His perception.
(b) His intuition.
(c) His calculations.
(d) His associative abilities.

15. How does Kanigel say Ramanujan passed his time on the ship?
(a) Reading novels.
(b) Playing games.
(c) Working feverishly.
(d) Sick.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who developed an exact solution to the question of partitions?

2. What value did Ramanujan work with at Cambridge?

3. What did Ramanujan work out in his research on constants?

4. What did Hardy and Neville nominate Ramanujan to become?

5. What are partitions in math?

(see the answer keys)

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