Chapter III: Reading Quiz — Walden Pond

What book does Thoreau keep on his table throughout the summer at Walden Pond?

• Plato's Dialogues
• Homer's Iliad
• Virgil's Aeneid
• The Bible

What prevents Thoreau from reading seriously during his early time at Walden?

• Lack of books
• Too many visitors
• Manual labor on his cabin and beans
• Poor eyesight

What does Thoreau call written literary language, in contrast to the spoken "mother tongue"?

• The scholar's tongue
• The father tongue
• The ancient tongue
• The noble tongue

How much does Thoreau say Concord spent on its town-house?

• One thousand dollars
• Five thousand dollars
• Seventeen thousand dollars
• Fifty thousand dollars

To what does Thoreau compare serious reading?

• Religious meditation
• Athletic training
• Military discipline
• Musical practice

What does Thoreau propose villages should become?

• Trading centers
• Universities
• Religious communities
• Agricultural cooperatives

What historical figure does Thoreau cite as having carried the Iliad on military expeditions?

• Julius Caesar
• Napoleon Bonaparte
• Alexander the Great
• Hannibal

What metaphor does Thoreau use to describe written words compared to spoken language?

• Rivers vs. puddles
• Stars vs. clouds
• Mountains vs. hills
• Oaks vs. weeds

Thoreau read Plato's Dialogues while living at Walden Pond.

Thoreau read shallow travel books during intervals in his manual labor at Walden.

In the passage "without danger of dissipation or luxuriousness," what does "dissipation" most closely mean?

• Evaporation
• Wasteful indulgence
• Disagreement
• Scattering of light

What does "sedulously" mean in "This sort of gingerbread is baked daily and more sedulously than pure wheat"?

• Carelessly
• Reluctantly
• With persistent diligence
• Secretly

In "a general deliquium and sloughing off of all the intellectual faculties," what does "deliquium" mean?

• A sudden awakening
• A melting or dissolving away
• A state of confusion
• An increase in strength