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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. After dinner, what do the other tour members insist that Ivanovich do?
(a) Sing a solo.
(b) Prove that he knows where they are going.
(c) Teach them a few words of Russian.
(d) Practice speaking German more clearly.

2. How does the text's language change when the group gets off the train at the last stop on the first day?
(a) The language becomes more lyrical.
(b) The language becomes more conversational.
(c) The language becomes more circuitous.
(d) The language becomes more grandiloquent.

3. What does Ivanovich feel is happening as the first night of the tour wears on?
(a) The other group members are starting to dislike Schramm.
(b) The others are melding together into one collective being.
(c) The others are becoming more tolerant of his eccentricities.
(d) The group leader is losing power to Schramm.

4. What relationship does Vasili Ivanovich have to the story's narrator?
(a) He is the man who was once in love with the narrator's wife.
(b) He is a man whom the narrator met on a group tour.
(c) He is the narrator's former employee.
(d) He is the narrator's brother-in-law.

5. Who is the author of "Cloud, Castle, Lake"?
(a) Anton Chekhov.
(b) Ivan Turgenev
(c) Leo Tolstoy.
(d) Vladimir Nabokov.

6. What "fancy-style" item does Ivanovich buy for his trip (3)?
(a) A walking stick.
(b) A pair of hiking boots.
(c) An enormous backpack.
(d) A flannel shirt.

7. What is the "unusual expression" of the lake's water (14)?
(a) An oddly red color.
(b) A cloud reflected in its center.
(c) Ripples that seem to follow Ivanovich along the shore.
(d) Waves moving away from the shore instead of towards it.

8. Which of the following describes the group leader accurately?
(a) He is missing one front tooth.
(b) He has eyes of two different colors.
(c) He is badly sunburned.
(d) He has unusually long hair.

9. What detail of Ivanovich's appearance seems to impress the narrator?
(a) His elegant clothing.
(b) His neatly trimmed hair.
(c) His healthy complexion.
(d) His athletic physique.

10. Which character is said to have "lustreless eyes and a vague velvety vileness" (6)?
(a) The widow.
(b) Greta.
(c) Schramm.
(d) Schultz.

11. What does Ivanovich enjoy reading?
(a) Russian lyrical poetry.
(b) German Classical poetry.
(c) French Baroque poetry.
(d) English metaphysical poetry.

12. What instrument does one of the men insist on teaching Ivanovich to play?
(a) Mandolin.
(b) Fiddle.
(c) Ukulele.
(d) Balalaika.

13. What is the tour group doing in the passage that says "they raised dust along a highway" (12)?
(a) Riding in a car.
(b) Digging.
(c) Walking.
(d) Fighting.

14. When the narrator says that the road "undulated," what is being said of this road (12)?
(a) It curves sharply.
(b) It abruptly ends.
(c) It gently rises and falls.
(d) It varies in width.

15. One woman is described as "burlesque" (6). From the context, which is most likely true?
(a) She spends most of the trip making jokes.
(b) She works as an exotic dancer in Berlin.
(c) She is uncomfortably flirtatious.
(d) She seems like an exaggerated caricature.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator say is "dangerous for the soul" (7)?

2. What word does the narrator say describes the appearance of "all creatures still unknown to us" (4)?

3. What does the narrator remember about the time of year in which the story takes place?

4. What technique is used in the phrase "Wispy clouds—greyhounds of heaven" (6)?

5. Whom does the Bureau's song recommend should be "killed" by a walk in the countryside with "the good, the hearty guys" (9)?

(see the answer keys)

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