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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 the student debate with others?
(a) Poetry and philosophical tenets.
(b) The political situation in Prague.
(c) The might of capitalism to overthrow communism.
(d) The right of Russia to be in Hungary.

2. What is the island like where Tamina and the boy are at?
(a) It is full of children.
(b) It is deserted.
(c) It is full of strange animals.
(d) It is full of lush vegetation and has a few elderly women.

3. How is the student recognized?
(a) As an artist.
(b) As a student; that's all.
(c) As a fake.
(d) As a poet.

4. How does the narrator describe Tamina?
(a) As on a raft looking back.
(b) As a empty husk.
(c) As a lost soul whose shape is set in the past.
(d) As a empty soul with no life.

5. Where do Kristyna and a student she meets agree to reunite?
(a) In Prague.
(b) At his apartment in the city.
(c) In Poland.
(d) In Budapest.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where is the boat with the boy who rows?

2. What happens to Tamina after she sleeps with Hugo?

3. What happens to Tamina eventually?

4. What is the man's name who drives off with Tamina in a red sports car?

5. What does Hugo do after sleeping with Tamina?

Short Essay Questions

1. Discuss what graphomania is and how it is used in the context of this chapter.

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

3. What does Tamina do shortly after her husband dies and what might this foreshadow?

4. Why do you think Kundera blurs historical moments?

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

6. How is Tamina's situation where Raphael takes her similar to her husband's situation just before he dies?

7. What is the meaning of the word litost?

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

9. What happens to permanently silence Tamina?

10. How are the Czechs and litost related in Kundera's opinion?

(see the answer keys)

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