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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When did Sisyphus test his wife's love?
(a) As he was leaving on his travels.
(b) When he was close to death.
(c) When he returned from his travels.
(d) On their wedding night.

2. What should be the response to subterfuge?
(a) We should turn away from it.
(b) We should turn to it in hope.
(c) We should admire it for its inventiveness.
(d) We should be suspicious of it.

3. What embodies 'a drama of the intelligence', according to Camus?
(a) A work of art.
(b) The great scientific discoveries.
(c) A marvel of engineering.
(d) The plays of Shakespeare.

4. What comment of Nietzsche's does Camus make reference to near the beginning of the chapter on Philosophy and Fiction?
(a) 'Midway in life's journey we need to enter a dark wood.'
(b) 'Scattered thoughts can be both orderly and disorderly.'
(c) 'We have art in order not to die of the truth.'
(d) 'What does not destroy me makes me stronger.'

5. What binds a man to the absurd?
(a) His intelligence.
(b) His consciousness of it.
(c) His sentient nature regarding death.
(d) Philosophy.

6. What is ridiculous about the writer who emulated Peregrinos?
(a) He thought the name would make him a great travel writer, but he failed.
(b) The writer suicided so his book would be noticed, but the book was no good.
(c) The writer suicided in despair and his relatives benefited hugely from the royalties.
(d) He tried to commit suicide by drowning in the Seine, but could not sink.

7. What does Camus see as the one truly serious philosophical problem?
(a) Judging the value of religion.
(b) The problem of human pain and suffering.
(c) Judging the value of actions.
(d) Judging whether or not life is worth living.

8. What is the hero's great fear following his transformation?
(a) His father's anger.
(b) His mother's tears.
(c) His boss' anger.
(d) That his girlfriend will find out.

9. To which school of thought does Husserl belong?
(a) Geomorphology.
(b) Rationalism.
(c) Phenomenology.
(d) Teleology.

10. What is indicated when melancholy arises in the human heart?
(a) Suicidal depression.
(b) The need for positive thinking and better prioritizing.
(c) The rock's victory.
(d) Counsellig with a psychiatrist.

11. Which art and science have close affinity?
(a) Music and kinesthetics.
(b) Fiction and physics.
(c) Painting and geometry.
(d) Music and mathematics.

12. What has Camus to say about Kirilov's reasoning?
(a) It should be the basis of further discussion.
(b) It is ridiculous, but must be considered.
(c) It is rational and therefore necessary.
(d) It is absurd, but it is necessary.

13. Who believed that 'to kill God is to become god oneself'?
(a) Both Kirilov and Onegin.
(b) Both Kirkegaard and Camus.
(c) Both Kirilov and Nietzsche.
(d) Karl Marx.

14. Which philosopher claims that anxiety is at the source of everything?
(a) Heidegger.
(b) Sartre.
(c) Aristotle.
(d) St. Augustine.

15. Identify the literary device Camus uses in: 'Even men without a gospel have their Mount of Olives'.
(a) The device is personification.
(b) The device is a metaphor.
(c) The device is an example of transubstantiation.
(d) The device is an example of onomatopoeia.

Short Answer Questions

1. What common quality can be found in Kafka, Proust and Plotinus?

2. Who is the protagonist in The Trial?

3. What does Camus suggest happens in bad novels?

4. According to Camus, what is the most obvious symbol in The Trial?

5. What sacrifice does Loyola say God rejoices in?

(see the answer keys)

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