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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What kind of bird did the narrator say was unafraid of people and could be shot easily? ("Sententious.")
(a) Quail.
(b) Grouse.
(c) Pheasant.
(d) Duck.

2. What was a "kolymka"?
(a) A lamp.
(b) A pudding.
(c) A camp.
(d) A bread.

3. What did Golubev fake so he would not have to return to work? ("A Piece of Meat")
(a) Appendicitis.
(b) A broken back.
(c) Hearing loss.
(d) A broken rib.

4. Who was denied hot food for refusing to give up his prosthetic arm?
(a) Karavaev.
(b) Grisha.
(c) Shor.
(d) Panin.

5. Because of the barrenness of the winter, as described in "A Pushover Job," how far could a person be seen from?
(a) Half a mile away.
(b) A mile away.
(c) 500 feet away.
(d) A quarter mile away.

Short Answer Questions

1. What article of the Criminal Code defined political prisoners?

2. What story did the men at the fire NOT want to hear Platonov tell? (The Snake Charmer.")

3. What mountain spring did the narrator and his three companions reach at the beginning of "Dry Rations"?

4. In "A Piece of Meat," how did Golubev always sleep?

5. What did Pesniakevich's mother own in Minsk? ("Prosthetic Appliances.")

Short Essay Questions

1. Why were camp officials perplexed by the convicts avoidance of the bathhouse?

2. In "Sententious," who did the narrator say that he envied?

3. Why did Garkunov die at the end of "On Tick"?

4. What did the narrator say about death in "Sententious"?

5. What prosthetics were collected by the guards in "Prosthetic Appliances"?

6. What question did the new arrivals ask of the old convicts in "Major Pugachov's Last Battle"?

7. What did the narrator in "A Pushover Job" and his companion do to full-fill their quota of pine needles?

8. Why did Platonov decide to tell the thieves a story? ("The Snake Charmer.")

9. What did the extra food give the sectarian the energy to do in "Quiet"?

10. Why was the Siberian dwarf cedar called a "weatherman" by the narrator?

(see the answer keys)

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