View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. What technique is used in the phrase "Wispy clouds—greyhounds of heaven" (6)?
(a) Allegory.
(b) Metonymy.
(c) Metaphor.
(d) Synechdoche.

4. What is discovered when the group members pool their food for dinner?
(a) Some have brought very little food along.
(b) Most of the food has been spoiled by the long journey.
(c) The women are unwilling to prepare the food for the men.
(d) Ivanovich is the only one who has brought something different.

5. The narrator describes a hill covered with "verdure"; what is this hill covered with?
(a) Flourishing plants.
(b) Rotting plants.
(c) Sprouting plants.
(d) Cultivated plants.

Short Answer Questions

1. After dinner, what do the other tour members insist that Ivanovich do?

2. Which of the following best characterizes the narrator's attitude toward the absurd process that Ivanovich is told he must follow to sell back the tickets?

3. Including Ivanovich and the Bureau employees, how many people are in the tour group?

4. What technique is used in the sentence "The burning sun crept toward a corner of the window and suddenly spilled over the yellow bench" (6)?

5. The group leader is "lanky" (5). What does this mean is true about him?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Ivanovich end up losing the game that they play on the train, and what happens as a consequence?

2. What does Ivanovich do as soon as he sits down in the train on the first morning of the trip, and what is the group's reaction?

3. How does Ivanovich end up going on a tour that he does not want to go on?

4. For what two reasons does Ivanovich sleep badly on the night before the trip begins?

5. On the second day of the tour, what is Ivanovich doing from early morning until early evening?

6. With whom does Ivanovich spend the first night, and how does this person keep Ivanovich awake?

7. Why is it such a relief to Ivanovich when the tour group finally stops for the night at an inn?

8. On the third day of the tour, what does Ivanovich see that makes him feel the happiness he dreamed he might find on the trip?

9. Describe the game that the passengers come up with to play on the train.

10. What is frustrating for Ivanovich about the beauty in the landscapes he sees from the train?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,029 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample