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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. Why had the lawyers in "The Lawyers' Plot" been taken to the House of Vaskov?

2. What did the Diamond trucks and Studebakers haul along the roads in Kolyma? ("Land-Lease.")

3. At the end of "Esperanto," what did Skoroseev ask of the narrator after he had spent the night in his (Skoroseev's) home?

4. What did the chief, in "Chief of Political Control," refuse in place of doing business first?

5. What did the narrator recall had been confiscated in Magadan? ("Esperanto.")

Short Essay Questions

1. What was Kudinov's reasoning for why the convict work gang #4 stood idol on November 12th? ("The Injector.")

2. Why was Sazonov directed to the poorer hut in "My First Tooth"?

3. Why did Praga, in "Esperanto," hack his clothing to rags?

4. How did the narrator come to remember the story "Esperanto"?

5. Why did the narrator in "My First Tooth" state that it was easier to bear something after you write it down? ("My First Tooth.")

6. Where did the narrator hide his money during his train ride? ("The Train.")

7. What game did the lieutenant and the narrator play during "The Train"?

8. What did the bulldozer, in "Land-Lease," come to be used for?

9. Why were the convicts unable to eat the horse meat in "Esperanto"?

10. What was the narrator shocked by about the blade of the bulldozer? ("Land-Lease.")

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The harshness of work in the camps was described through the severe actions that convicts would go to to avoid it. Describe three examples where convicts sacrificed themselves, in one way or another, to avoid work in the camps.

Essay Topic 2

Based off of the text as a whole, describe the kind of life that a man in the Kloyma forced-labor camps lived. What did their days consist of? What were their fears? What was expected of them? How were they treated?

Essay Topic 3

Many time throughout the collection of stories, Shalamov detailed the loss of human emotions. What human emotions were laborers in Kolyma able to keep? What human emotions did the men tend to lose forever? Why was this as it was?

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