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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 does Zdena urge Mirek to do?
(a) Make a deal with his political party.
(b) Leave the country.
(c) Reconcile with her.
(d) Get a job.

2. What upsets Marketa about her mother-in-law?
(a) That she insists that she come to see her grandson.
(b) That the breakup of the marriage is all Marketa's fault.
(c) That she will not stay in the hotel.
(d) She does not leave on the day Marketa requested.

3. What is Kundera hired to write for a political magazine?
(a) A political pundit column.
(b) An astrology column.
(c) The truth.
(d) A vitrolic response to Voice of America.

4. What does Mama later say about Eva?
(a) That she is kind.
(b) That she looks like a former friend of Mama's.
(c) That she is smart.
(d) That she looks like a hussy.

5. Where does Eva meet Marketa?
(a) At a ski resort.
(b) At college.
(c) At a political rally.
(d) In a spa.

Short Answer Questions

1. What happens to Mirek when he and Zdena break up?

2. What year is it when the book opens?

3. What does Mama remember when they are all together?

4. Who addresses the Czech people?

5. How do Marketa and Eva get along at first?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Marketa contemplate doing with Eva near the end of the chapter?

2. What does Mirek think of Zdena when they first meet and then become lovers?

3. What is it that Marketa does not know about Eva and do you think Marketa would care at this point if she learned this?

4. How does Marketa's feelings towards her mother-in-law change over time?

5. Who is Mirek going to visit and why?

6. What is the difference between how Mama views memory versus how Karel and Marketa do?

7. Why do you think Marketa asks Eva to pretend she is Marketa's cousin?

8. What are Michelle and Gabrielle doing and what is their response?

9. Why does Kundera quit dancing and what does he imagine about the dancing? Of what do you think his imagining about the dancing is symbolic?

10. What does this Kundera say about our collective past?

(see the answer keys)

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