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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Merton describe his mother?
(a) She was a British artist.
(b) She was an American perfectionist.
(c) She was a divorced woman.
(d) She was an American pessimist.

2. Of which place in St. Antonin does Merton have unpleasant memories?
(a) The museum.
(b) The church.
(c) The Lycee.
(d) The countryside.

3. What does Merton admire about Mark Van Doren?
(a) His sports ability.
(b) His contemplative ability.
(c) His many girlfriends.
(d) His teaching.

4. How does Merton react to his first exposure to death?
(a) With despair and foreboding.
(b) With fear and sadness.
(c) With deep terror.
(d) With innocence and curiosity.

5. What revelation did Merton have when attending his first Mass?
(a) That many ordinary people were more conscious of God than of each other.
(b) That many people at the church liked him.
(c) That many people came to Mass.
(d) That he did not feel out of place there.

6. Who visited Merton in St. Antonin?
(a) His brother.
(b) His mother.
(c) John Paul and Owen.
(d) Pop and Bonnemaman.

7. What does Merton do during the summer he returned to New York after a trip to Rome?
(a) He continues his religious explorations.
(b) He prepares for a diplomatic career.
(c) He begins going to bars and burlesques.
(d) He immediately visits his Aunt Maude.

8. Where did Merton visit his father after the end of the school term at Oakham?
(a) London.
(b) Rome.
(c) Scotland.
(d) France.

9. What university does Merton attend in New York?
(a) Cornell University.
(b) Hunter University.
(c) Harvard University.
(d) Columbia University.

10. What author was an enduring influence on Merton?
(a) William Faulkner.
(b) William Blake.
(c) John Donne.
(d) G.M. Hopkins.

11. What do the Columbia Review and the Spectator have in common?
(a) They are publications that represented failure to Merton.
(b) They are both student publications Merton was involved with.
(c) They are magazines Merton disliked.
(d) They are magazines that Pop wrote for.

12. When does Bonnemaman die?
(a) Summer of 1937.
(b) Summer of 1936.
(c) Fall of 1937.
(d) Fall of 1936.

13. What connection did Uncle Ben have with Durston House?
(a) He played on its cricket team.
(b) He went to school there.
(c) He had been headmaster there.
(d) He was a teacher there.

14. What authors have a particular effect on Merton at university?
(a) Freud and Jung.
(b) Chesterton and Snow.
(c) Joyce and Eliot.
(d) Woolf and James.

15. What encouraged Merton to take another step toward religion in Part 1, Chapter 3?
(a) The death of his father.
(b) Praying for Aunt Maude.
(c) The frescoes he saw in ancient cathedrals.
(d) His friend Andrew at Cambridge.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the "sign of the Water Bearer"?

2. When was Merton's brother born?

3. Where was Thomas Merton born?

4. Who is Owen Merton?

5. What kind of music did Merton especially like when he felt like a rebel in New York?

(see the answer keys)

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