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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. When Frank arrives where his children were said to be at, he is told they are now where?

2. At the tea-room Kuriatin has invited Frank to, waiters career about wheeling large teapots about like what?

3. What does Charlie wire Frank back the third day?

4. During his talk with Selwyn, Frank appears to be concentrating too much on what?

5. The Reid family home in Russia burns down how far in the riots?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Frank do once the police have left his business?

2. What does Frank tell those he finds awake when he arrives home after the break-in?

3. In his conversation with Selwyn concerning Miss Kinsman, why is it Frank does not seem to see that Selwyn is attempting to tell him something?

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

5. Why does Frank not give his address to Miss Kinsman?

6. What are some ways Penelope Fitzgerald shows Frank knows how to deal with Russians?

7. The same evening of the morning Charlie accompanies Frank to the tram stop, how does he modify his request to take the children to England?

8. What are the two curious questions that Frank and Lisa ask each other during his interview of her for the position of governess?

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

10. What is it Frank can see in Chapter 24 regarding the impression Volodya has made upon Lisa?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the albatross of printing machinery that Frank inherits upon his father's death? Why is it a burden to Frank? How is he approaching the matter? What appears to be the outcome?

Essay Topic 2

During the course of the conversation Frank has with Dolly over her writing a letter to her mother, what does the reader learn that she thinks of Nellie? How does Dolly view Nellie's decision to get married and have children? What sort of way is that for a ten-year-old child to think? Does it seem unusual for Dolly?

Essay Topic 3

Penelope Fitzgerald displays Frank as a thoughtful and caring manager in Chapter 5. Yet it is in that very chapter that he lets Korobyev go. Is this not a contradiction? What does Frank tell Agafya, the tea women, when she begs for him to take Korobyev back on? Is Frank sympathetic and kind, or merely equitable?

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