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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 word most accurately describes Soraya's profession?
(a) Professor.
(b) Prostitute.
(c) Architect.
(d) Provost.

2. Who is Petrus?
(a) A woman who lives in Lucy's house.
(b) Lucy's cat.
(c) Lucy's helper with the gardening.
(d) Lucy's neighbor.

3. What is the subject of the poem that David discusses in Chapter 4?
(a) Skiing.
(b) Italy.
(c) An oak tree.
(d) The Alps.

4. After the hearing, who is it that asks David how the hearing went?
(a) The woman from the Coalition Against Discrimination.
(b) A female reporter.
(c) A male reporter.
(d) His ex-wife.

5. Who is Lara that is mentioned in the context of David's class?
(a) The unwelcome visitor.
(b) Another student.
(c) The woman is a poem.
(d) Amanda's friend.

Short Answer Questions

1. At the beginning of Chapter 3, when David calls Melanie, what kind of date does her ask her for?

2. What is one intention of Melanie's that David learns from the phone call that he receives shortly before giving the exam?

3. Who describes taking a liking to poetry being like falling in love?

4. Except for the course in Romantic poets, what is the general academic area of the courses that David teaches?

5. At the beginning of Chapter 4, when Melanie and David are intimate, she questions him about Amanda. Who is Amanda?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Melanie's father calls David, how does David respond to Melanie's father's request for help?

2. What might one make of David's abundance of notes on Byron rather than recognizing that the "two fat files" of notes might be enough to begin writing?

3. How do you interpret Melanie's lukewarm acceptance of David Lurie into her flat and into her life?

4. When Melanie's boyfriend is in the class, the other students are even quieter than they usually are. How might one interpret this silence?

5. In what way might Lucy's concern for flowers and animals be representative of an archetypal figure in literature?

6. While David pleads guilty, he will not say that he repents. What is his reason for refusing this request to sign a repentance?

7. Why is it important to David that Lucy is as he puts it a "woman of passion?"

8. When Melanie is with David in his daughter's room, why might Melanie have such an interest in David's previous sexual conquests?

9. What do David's literary references in Chapter 1 suggest about him?

10. At David's hearing, what are the two charges to which he pleads guilty?

(see the answer keys)

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