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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 is the main point of Chapter 12?
(a) The students enjoy reading "Lolita."
(b) To provide the reader with an understanding of how "Lolita" was sold in Tehran.
(c) To provide the reader with a sketch of the class meeting to discuss "Lolita."
(d) Copies of books are not readily available in Tehran.

2. What does the closeness of the room do to Nafisi and her students?
(a) It creates a false sense of security in their daily life.
(b) It causes them to become personal and intimate.
(c) It prohibits them from sharing their personal thoughts.
(d) It makes them nervous and uncomfortable.

3. Why is Nafisi worried about her students?
(a) Because her students show no signs of being individuals.
(b) Because the students are not interested in reading and discussing literature.
(c) She is concerned that they will be punished by their families for attending her class.
(d) She is worried that they cannot afford the flowers she expects them to bring.

4. Who was Nafisi's father?
(a) A troubled businessman.
(b) A famous author.
(c) The director of a high school in Switzerland.
(d) The youngest mayor of Tehran in pre-revolutionary Iran.

5. Who is the villain in "Lolita"?
(a) The individual with the imaginative mind.
(b) Humbert.
(c) Lolita.
(d) The director of the summer camp.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where is Nafisi's apartment located?

2. Why did Nabokov say that every great novel is a fairy tale?

3. What happens to the everyday lives of Nafisi and her students as a result of the secret class?

4. What does the class strive to do in their study of literature?

5. What does Nassrin's mother's teaching symbolize?

Short Essay Questions

1. According to Vera Nabokov, what is the beauty in "Lolita" and why is it missed by critics?

2. Why do the magician and Nafisi enjoy each other's company so much?

3. Why does Nafisi ask her children about their memories of Iran?

4. In Part 1, Chapter 18, the room where the class meets becomes a character. How does Nafisi describe the room?

5. Why does Nafisi consider Humbert to be a seducer of the readers of "Lolita"?

6. Why does Nafisi refer to two photographs in the first chapter?

7. Why does Nafisi agree with Nabokov's statement that every great novel is a fairy tale?

8. Why do Mitra and the other students find the Thursday study group to be significant?

9. Why does Nafisi describe the three types of women portrayed in "A Thousand and One Nights"?

10. How is Professor X's method of teaching literature different than Nafisi's method of teaching literature?

(see the answer keys)

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