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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Whose home does Yuri return to after escaping from his conscription?

2. What is the name of the washing woman that Gordon and Dudorov speak with?

3. Yuri receives a letter from Tonia. Where does he learn she has gone?

4. Why do Lara and Yuri leave Yuriatin so suddenly?

5. In Chapter 16, after World War II, under whose protection does Tonia live?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Yuri choose to compare the drops of blood in the snow with rowan berries?

2. Describe what happens when Komarovsky shows up at Yuri and Lara's house in Yuriatin.

3. What might have been done to prevent Pamphil's insanity?

4. Describe what Yuri finds in Lara's house when he returns to Yuriatin.

5. In Chapter 13, while in Yuritan, what does Lara want to have happen to her relationship with Yuri?

6. What could the rowan tree symbolize?

7. Why does Lara return for Yuri's funeral after he refused to follow her to Vladivostok?

8. How does Yuri avoid the temptation of considering Lara and her daughter his new family?

9. Describe the rowan tree.

10. Why do you think Yuri stays in Yuriatin for a time instead of leaving immediately to find his wife and family?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the book, character and events seem to coincidentally occur at just the right (or wrong) time. What role does fate play in Yuri's life? What role does fate play in Lara's life? Give specific examples from the book.

Essay Topic 2

Throughout the book, Yuri is faced with many choices. Describe three major choices Yuri made and how they affected the outcome of the story. What events or characters motivated those choices? How might the story have been different had those choices not been made?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the significance of the rowan tree as described by Yuri. How does it differ from all the other trees that surround it? What does it symbolize to Yuri? Later in the story, Yuri refers to drops of blood in the snow as appearing like fallen rowan berries. What is the significance of the fallen berries?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 865 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample