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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. In the notebook in "A Child's Drawings", what were all the houses surrounded by?

2. How much oatmeal did the convicts receive in their portions? ("Land-Lease")

3. According to Golubev's boss in "Magic," who are all of the carpenters?

4. What, in the narrator's language, meant "run off at the mouth"? ("Esperanto.")

5. What did Nikishov claim was different about Kolyma? ("Chief of Political Control.")

Short Essay Questions

1. What did convicts receive as payment for keeping their mouths shut about guards beating them? ("The Chief of Political Control.")

2. According to the narrator in "The Lawyer's Plot," what were the three ways out of the mine?

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

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

5. How did the narrator describe Romanov in "The Lawyer's Plot"?

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

7. Why was the narrator afraid to get off of the train at any station other than the Moscow station? ("The Train.")

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Based upon the text, what three things do you think that the forced-laborers in Kolyma needed to survive? Find three different needs and explain why they were necessary for survival in Kolyma.

Essay Topic 2

In "A Piece of Meat," the narrator stated that "the rudimentary organ turned out not to be rudimentary at all, but essential, functioning, life-saving." Find, and discuss, three examples where a rudimentary object turned out to be "essential, functioning and life-saving."

Essay Topic 3

Objects from the civilian world held great value for the men of Kolyma. Discuss three objects from the civilized world, what was done to keep the object in the possession of the owner, why the owner lost the possession, and how the owner felt about their possession.

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