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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 does Frank ask Lisa to do?

2. How does Frank decide whether or not to take a police inspector to the office with him after hours?

3. The kitchen-mother Frank finds watching his children normally is available for how much per day?

4. The choral society Frank and Nellie met at was performing what at the time?

5. Subsequent to his initial apprenticeship, where does Frank transfer to?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens regarding the wood Kuriatin is supposed to be delivering to repair the machine room floor at Reid Press?

2. What prompts Frank to ask Nellie if he should get crosses for Dolly and Ben following Annushka's birth?

3. What sort of description does Penelope Fitzgerald provide of Tvyordov, the chief compositor?

4. What sort of character is Mrs. Graham shown to be in Chapter 18?

5. Where does Frank encounter Reverend Graham?

6. What transpires after Frank receives a telephone call from the Security Police on Palm Sunday?

7. Why is it reasonable to describe the midnight scene in the woods surrounding the Reid dacha as the most mysterious in the novel?

8. What transpires in Frank's and Nellie's lives between the time they marry and Frank's parents' deaths?

9. In the first paragraph of Chapter 1, what situation occurs, the resolution of which is the main thrust of the tale?

10. When Frank tells Lisa he is sorry she never managed to study, what transpires next?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the real motive behind Volodya breaking into Reid Press? How does Frank learn the true reason? What is it Volodya detests the thought of? What impression has Volodya made upon Lisa?

Essay Topic 2

How does Chapter 22 reflect the aggressive nature the Russian bureaucracy maintains in this era? Why is it Frank appears to accept its intrusion in his life with equanimity when facing the Security Police, but in Chapter 6 it reflects his concern about the changes transpiring between the government and those governed, and the projected outlook for foreigners like himself?

Essay Topic 3

What does Dolly ask of her father the day before Charlie arrives? What are Frank's reply and his reason given? What does it turn out is the true motivation for denying the children? What information does Frank obtain upon meeting Charlie?

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