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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. How is Tamina's apartment?
(a) Cluttered but clean.
(b) In shambles.
(c) Neat and organized.
(d) Completely empty.

2. How does the student spend the evening?
(a) Sleeping at a friend's house.
(b) Carousing with friends.
(c) In the presence of great minds.
(d) In the arms of a prostitute.

3. With whom does Kristyna sometimes have an affair?
(a) A physics professor.
(b) A cook.
(c) An auto mechanic.
(d) A pilot.

4. Who is Tamina?
(a) She is Kundera's second wife.
(b) We are never told anything about her.
(c) She is one of the two or three fictionalized characters that Kundera assumes are born every second on earth.
(d) She is a secondary character and a cousin to Kundera.

5. What does Tamina do when the boy gets tired?
(a) Nothing.
(b) Takes over rowing.
(c) Gives him some candy for energy.
(d) Tosses him overboard.

Short Answer Questions

1. How is Tamina's situation similar to her husband's when he was ill?

2. What does Tamina do shortly after losing her husband?

3. What is the only picture Tamina has of her husband?

4. In what status does Tamina leave Bohemia?

5. Why do the police go to Tamina's apartment?

Short Essay Questions

1. What conditions have to exist for graphomania to blossom?

2. Where does Tamina go with Raphael?

3. Why is Tamina losing herself and why does she think the notebooks will help her situation?

4. What is ironic about the student deceiving Kristyna and attending the Writer's Club meeting?

5. Why do you think Kundera blurs historical moments?

6. How is Kundera's father's attempt to understand Beethoven undertaken by Kundera?

7. What happens to Kundera's father in Part 6 and what do you think is the significance of Kundera writing about what happens to his father?

8. Explain who Tamina is and the significance of how Kundera describes her.

9. What does Tamina ask Bibi to get for her in Prague and why does Tamina make the request?

10. Briefly describe a few of the most salient points about Tamina.

(see the answer keys)

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