quiz questions

Question 1

(“On Writing and Catching” Slideshow) Identify the ironic paradox present at the beginning of The Book of Ecclesiastes.

Answer 1

The author observes that life lacks substance and there is nothing we can do about it; but the claim, itself, is substantive.

Question 2

(“On Writing and Catching” Slideshow) The Book of Ecclesiastes presents itself as a critique of

Answer 2

the biblical God, since He demonstrates an appalling lack of justice.

Question 3

(Lecture 1-A) The two sides of this course, the “pagan side” and the “biblical side,” share all of the following in common except for one, namely,

Answer 3

references to the other.

Question 4

(Lecture 1-B) It is of the highest import, given Hemingway’s iceberg method of writing, that in The Old Man and the Sea

Answer 4

the old man fishes alone on a skiff.

Question 5

The author of Ecclesiastes claims that since you are going to die anyway, it doesn’t really matter how you live your life. T/F

Answer 5

False

Question 6

When the biblical God tells Moses that He will remember bad deeds for three or four generations and good deeds for a thousand generations, the reader can infer that

Answer 6

the sins of the ancestors will be visited upon their descendants.

Question 7

When we read a book like the Hebrew Bible, the most important assumption we make about it is that

Answer 7

the biblical text is intelligible in every way.

Question 8

Control over the antimonies that punctuate the human condition (i.e., birth/death, growth/debilitation, laughter/tears)

Answer 8

is not humanly possible.

Question 9

The Hebrew term, hevel…

Answer 9

first occurs in the Hebrew Bible in the Book of Ecclesiastes, where it refers to the insubstantiality of life.

Question 10

Our entire understanding of The Old Man and the Sea turns on whether we can trust the old man’s sensibilities and evaluations. T/F

Answer 10

True

Question 11

At its heart, Judaism is an intellectual tradition because

Answer 11

it is based on the genius of the Hebrew Bible, and a relationship with such a book is, by nature, intellectual.

Question 12

This class adopts the following approach to reading the Hebrew Bible:

Answer 12

The order of the books is worthy of serious attention.

Question 13

Is Santiago really an “old” man?

Answer 13

Maybe; Hemingway is forcing the reader to consider what old means.

Question 14

The old man identifies with Joe DiMaggio. That could be a sign that

Answer 14

when Santiago was younger he played baseball.