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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What dessert were the prisoners fed in "Quiet"?

2. During what months would the dwarf cedar tree rise up from the ground?

3. What was the narrator sitting by at the opening of "The Snake Charmer"?

4. As told in "In the Bathhouse," how many men are packed into the dressing-rooms of the bathhouse?

5. What are the bathhouse sessions referred to in "In the Bathhouse"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What plans did Bagretsov have for the underwear that he took off of the corpse?

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

3. In "The Bathhouse," why was lice a relative concept to most convicts?

4. Why did the convicts that had been in the camps take their bread back to their barracks? ("Major Pugachov's Last Battle")

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

6. What hypothesis was tested in the story "Quiet"?

7. In the story "In The Night," how did Bagretsov cut his finger?

8. What notations did the guards, described in "Prosthetic Appliances", use to show that a convict would not receive hot food and/or bread?

9. Why did Merzlakov fake a back injury in "Shock Therapy"?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

As detailed by the text, men were moved constantly and consistently in and out of different work houses. This change set up for many of the men to find themselves separated from human companionship. In what ways did the text show the breakdown of relationships based upon the experiences in Kolyma?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the impact that the text had on you. Did you feel as though the text was a stretch of the truth? Did you feel as though the information given by the author was truthful and realistic? Support your focus with textual evidence.

Essay Topic 3

Magic seemed to be the only way that some men made it out of the camps of Kolyma alive. Discuss three examples throughout the text where "magic" seemed to be responsible for survival. (Think of how "magic" was depicted in the story "Magic" to help answer this question.)

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 820 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample