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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. Where does Kundera meet his former boss?
(a) At a secret apartment.
(b) In the underground tunnels near the square.
(c) At the fish market.
(d) At the wharf.

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

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

4. What does Marketa not know about Eva and Karel?
(a) That they are both in love with a third woman.
(b) That Eva wants Karel to encourage Marketa to leave him for her.
(c) That they plan to eventually marry.
(d) That they know each other before Marketa meets Eva.

5. 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) Nothing.
(c) It softens Marketa's perspective on her mother-in-law.
(d) It gives her the perspective to be able to forgive the mother-in-law.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why do Michelle and Gabrielle start to cry?

2. When does Marketa begin to write her mother-in-law?

3. What is Klement Gottwald doing?

4. Why does Zdena urge Mirek to take this action?

5. Why do students dance in a ring?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens that embarrasses Mama?

2. What happens when Karel receives a phone call and how is the outcome ironic?

3. How would the relationship between Marketa and Karel change if Marketa cheats on him with Eva and her husband?

4. What is the meaning of laughter in part 3?

5. How does Kundera's loss of his friends in the dancing circle affect him later?

6. What do Kundera and other students do around 1948 and why? Do you think Kundera is speaking metaphorically or actuality.

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

8. What is upsetting about Mama's visit and why doesn't Marketa do anything about it?

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

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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