The Ephemera: An Emblem of Human Life quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which form best describes "The Ephemera: An Emblem of Human Life"?

   • Correct answer: A playful bagatelle cast as a personal letter
   • A scientific report on the habits of insects
   • A pastoral elegy composed in rhyming verse
   • A political pamphlet addressed to Congress

   Correct. It is a short, light piece (a bagatelle) written as a letter to Madame Brillon, in which talking mayflies stand for human beings: a fable with a satirical edge.

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2. 2

   Question 2. How does Franklin excuse his slow progress in Madame Brillon's language?

   • He would rather hear her music than speak French
   • He has been kept too busy by the war with Britain
   • Correct answer: He has given far too much study to the animal tongues
   • He feels he is now too old to learn a new language

   Franklin says, You know I understand all the inferior animal tongues, and calls his too great application to the study of them the best excuse he can give for the little progress he has made in her charming language. The joke is gentle self-mockery: the man who claims to speak with insects cannot manage French.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What does Franklin find ironic about the young flies' warm dispute?

   • They argue over which fly should rule their bush
   • They fall silent the moment he leans in to listen
   • They agree on every point and still keep quarreling
   • Correct answer: They argue as though sure of living a whole month

   Creatures who live a single day spend it disputing two foreign musicians, seemingly as regardless of the shortness of life as if they had been sure of living a month. Franklin's satire touches the people of his own circle, who also spend short lives on trivial quarrels.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What does Franklin playfully conclude from the young flies' quarrel?

   • Their race must have forgotten all its philosophers
   • Correct answer: They must live under a wise, just and mild government
   • They must be at war with the flies of another bush
   • Their music must be finer than any heard in Paris

   Happy people! he thinks; they must be under a wise, just, and mild government, since they have no public grievances to complain of, nor any subject of contention but foreign music. The compliment is ironic: a society with nothing to argue about but music may simply be frivolous.

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5. 5

   Question 5. How long has the old fly lived?

   • One full month
   • Eighteen hours
   • Correct answer: Seven hours
   • Eight minutes

   I have lived seven of those hours, a great age, being no less than four hundred and twenty minutes of time. Eighteen hours is how long his philosophers said the world itself could last.

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6. 6

   Question 6. Why did the old fly's learned philosophers expect their world to end?

   • A flood would wash every leaf from the bush
   • The flies would grow corrupt and ruin the world
   • The bush would wither and drop all of its leaves
   • Correct answer: The sun would sink into the waters and go out

   By the apparent motion of the great luminary, the sun, the philosophers reasoned it must finish its course, be extinguished in the waters that surround us, and leave the world in cold and darkness. To a mayfly, an ordinary sunset looks like the end of everything.

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7. 7

   Question 7. In the line "by the apparent motion of the great luminary that gives life to all nature", what does luminary mean?

   • Correct answer: A heavenly body that gives off light
   • A spirit that guards the natural world
   • A famous person who inspires others
   • A lamp that lights a garden path

   Here a luminary is a body that gives light: the sun, which gives life to all nature and sinks toward the water. The modern sense, a famous or inspiring person, is a different meaning of the same word.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What effect does the old fly's phrase "this vast world, the Moulin Joly" have?

   • It shows that the estate stretched for many miles
   • Correct answer: It hints that our own world may be just as small
   • It proves the fly had flown far beyond the garden
   • It mocks the fly for boasting of his long travels

   A garden is the whole of creation to a fly, and its sunset is the end of the world. The shift in scale invites readers to wonder whether their own vast world, and their own sense of time, is as limited as the fly's.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What doubt does the old fly raise about his political struggles?

   • Good laws alone can keep a people from ruin
   • Only a single ruler can keep the bush in order
   • Foreign musicians have corrupted the young flies
   • Correct answer: Laws can do little for a people without morals

   He asks, for in politics what can laws do without morals? and predicts that the present race of ephemerae will in a course of minutes become corrupt, like those of other and older bushes. Laws alone cannot save a people whose morals decay.

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10. 10

    Question 10. How many more minutes does the old fly expect to live?

    • Ten or twelve
    • Correct answer: Seven or eight
    • About eighteen
    • Roughly forty

    Though still in health, he says, I cannot expect to live above seven or eight minutes longer.

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11. 11

    Question 11. Which saying does the old fly use to lament how little philosophy has achieved?

    • Correct answer: Art is long, and life is short
    • Knowledge is power over all nature
    • Time and tide wait for no creature
    • Well done is better than well said

    And in philosophy how small our progress! Alas! art is long, and life is short! The old proverb means that learning a craft or science takes far longer than one life allows, which is truer still for a creature that lives a day.

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12. 12

    Question 12. In the line "as they, in their national vivacity, spoke three or four together", what does vivacity mean?

    • Grave and solemn seriousness
    • Strong love of one's own country
    • Correct answer: Lively, animated high spirits
    • Quick-tempered rudeness to others

    Vivacity is liveliness and high spirits; the flies are so animated that three or four talk at once. Calling it national vivacity is a sly joke at the expense of Franklin's lively French friends. Seriousness is its opposite.

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13. 13

    Question 13. How does the old fly answer friends who say he will leave a name behind?

    • He agrees that glory makes his short life worthwhile
    • He begs his friends to carve his name upon the leaf
    • He says he would rather be remembered for his music
    • Correct answer: He asks what fame can mean to a fly who is gone

    But what will fame be to an ephemera who no longer exists? He adds that all history will end in the eighteenth hour, when the whole Moulin Joly is buried in universal ruin, so even a lasting name cannot last.

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14. 14

    Question 14. Whom does the old gray-headed fly most clearly stand for?

    • The young American nation fighting its war
    • Correct answer: Franklin himself, an aging statesman and philosopher
    • A Paris critic who judges foreign musicians
    • Madame Brillon, the musician Franklin admires

    Like Franklin, then 72, the old fly has lived a great age, fought political struggles for his compatriots, pursued philosophical studies for the benefit of our race, and been told he will leave a name behind. The allegory lets Franklin smile at his own ambitions.

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15. 15

    Question 15. What 'solid pleasures' remain to the speaker at the close of the letter?

    • Correct answer: A life spent meaning well, good talk, and Brillante
    • His honey-dew, his laws, and his lasting fame
    • The praise of the great philosophers of his race
    • The hope that the world outlives its eighteenth hour

    After all my eager pursuits, no solid pleasures now remain, but the reflection of a long life spent in meaning well, the sensible conversation of a few good lady ephemerae, and a kind smile and a tune from the ever amiable Brillante, a fond name for Madame Brillon. Friendship, not achievement, is what lasts.

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16. 16

    Question 16. Which of these happen in the letter?

    • Franklin's party was shown many skeletons of the little fly.

      Happened

      We had been shown numberless skeletons of a kind of little fly, called an ephemera.

    • Franklin caught a living ephemera and carried it home.

      Didn't happen

      He only listened to a company of them on a leaf and wrote down what the old fly said.

    • The young flies talked three or four at a time.

      Happened

      In their national vivacity they spoke three or four together, so he could make out little.

    • The young flies were debating how short their lives are.

      Didn't happen

      They were disputing two foreign musicians, as regardless of the shortness of life as if sure of living a month.

    • The old fly was alone on a leaf, talking to himself.

      Happened

      Franklin turned to an old gray-headed one, who was single on another leaf, and talking to himself.

    • The old fly scolded the young flies for wasting time.

      Didn't happen

      He never speaks to the young flies; his soliloquy is about his own life, toil and coming death.

    • The old fly's friends are the grandchildren of old friends.

      Happened

      My present friends are the children and grandchildren of the friends of my youth, who are now no more.

    • The old fly expects to live for several more hours.

      Didn't happen

      He cannot expect to live above seven or eight minutes longer.

    • The old fly has worked to store up honey-dew on his leaf.

      Happened

      What now avails all my toil and labor in amassing honey-dew on this leaf, which I cannot live to enjoy!

    • The old fly is sure his fame will comfort him after death.

      Didn't happen

      He asks, But what will fame be to an ephemera who no longer exists?

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