View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why does Mama get embarrassed?
(a) The others think the poem is dumb.
(b) Because Karel corrects her.
(c) Because Marketa corrects her.
(d) The others think the poem is incomprehensible.

2. What might the person fired have lost?
(a) A burgeoning career.
(b) A prime office location.
(c) A means of making a living.
(d) Good political connections.

3. What does Mama forget?
(a) To bring her toothbrush.
(b) To pack her pajamas.
(c) The last line of the poem.
(d) To cook the pasta.

4. What was happening in 1948 in Kundera's life?
(a) He begins to doubt the efficacy of communism.
(b) He learns he has leukemia.
(c) He is involved in the political parties of his time and "danced in a ring."
(d) His wife dies in childbirth.

5. What happens to Madame Raphael, Michelle and Gabrielle?
(a) They dance and then rise into the sky like angels.
(b) They are shot.
(c) They are arrested.
(d) They go off laughing together.

6. Who does Kundera watch in the ring?
(a) Eluard.
(b) Mirek.
(c) Eva.
(d) Karel.

7. What does Eva want?
(a) Male attention and satisfaction.
(b) To explore her sexuality.
(c) A feeling of family.
(d) She is not sure.

8. With what does Mirek profess to be entranced as far as Zdena is concerned?
(a) Her mind.
(b) Her artistic abilities.
(c) Her political connections.
(d) Her wealth.

9. Who is discussing the play "Rhinoceros" ?
(a) No one.
(b) Madame Raphael's political cell.
(c) Madame Raphael's support group.
(d) Madame Raphael's class.

10. To whom does Marketa introduce Eva?
(a) Karel.
(b) Marketa's sister.
(c) Marketa's son.
(d) Marketa's mother.

11. What does distance do for Marketa's attitude toward her mother-in-law?
(a) It makes her more determined to steer clear of her mother-in-law.
(b) It softens Marketa's perspective on her mother-in-law.
(c) It gives her the perspective to be able to forgive the mother-in-law.
(d) Nothing.

12. What happens to the person after the astrological reading?
(a) The person defects to the West.
(b) The person has Kundera arrested.
(c) The person becomes nicer and softer.
(d) The person commits suicide.

13. What is Zdena's response?
(a) She gave him a recommendation already and he blew it.
(b) Their child belongs with her mother.
(c) She is broke herself and has no money.
(d) Never will she give them to her.

14. When does Marketa begin to write her mother-in-law?
(a) When they need money.
(b) She does not write her mother-in-law.
(c) When her mother-in-law begins to write Marketa.
(d) When her mother-in-law's husband dies.

15. What is the subject of the poem?
(a) Hope.
(b) Religion.
(c) Grief.
(d) Politics.

Short Answer Questions

1. To whom does Mirek lie about the reasons he becomes involved with Zdena?

2. What are Eva, Karel and Marketa doing when Mama is in her room?

3. How does Mirek feel when he and Zdena break up their relationship?

4. What does Mirek say about Zdena's age?

5. Who wrote the Parole de femme?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 491 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample