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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. What confuses the narrator about Beria?

2. Who is Mr. Bond?

3. What does Pashka demand to know from the narrator?

4. Why must the narrator construct his stories three different ways?

5. Where was the young woman taken to live during the war?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who does the narrator notice while doing sequences and what does he notice about her?

2. What story does the narrator relate to Pashka?

3. What does the narrator do about three years after staying in the tombs and why was it difficult to do? How did he overcome the difficulty?

4. How does the narrator end up staying in a tomb for a while?

5. How does the narrator imagine Charlotte in France and what does he do that he does not usually do when preparing for her visit?

6. Who is the only person in the narrator's class who treats him kindly?

7. What do the narrator and Pashka do on their fishing trips?

8. How does Pashka feel about the narrator's new popularity and what does Pashka do about it?

9. What does the narrator realize concerning his grandmother and France?

10. Why does the narrator begin to write Charlotte's life and what does he want to know about her as he is writing?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the following:

1. What do you think are the characteristics of a successful novel?

2. Analyze and discuss "Dreams of My Russian Summers" based upon the criteria you decide upon in #1 and judge if Dreams of My Russian Summers is a successful novel.

3. Do you think the criteria for a successful novel should be different if it is written for adults versus young adults? Why or why not? Would most adults consider "Dreams of My Russian Summers" a successful novel? What about young teens?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss one of the following:

1. Thoroughly analyze how the setting informs the plot in "Dreams of My Russian Summers".

2. Trace and analyze one major theme of "Dreams of My Russian Summers". How is the theme represented by symbolism? By the characters' behaviors? By the action?

3. Trace and analyze two secondary themes of "Dreams of My Russian Summers". How are the themes represented by symbolism? By the characters' behaviors? By the action?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss one of the following:

1. Trace and analyze the theme of growth in "Dreams of My Russian Summers". Consider the following questions as you write: What characters are most concerned with growth? Why? What are some symbols of growth? Symbols of rigidity? What characters seem rigid?

2. Trace and analyze the theme of courage in "Dreams of My Russian Summers". Which characters struggle with this issue? Why? Which characters seem to possess courage? Why?

3. Trace and analyze the theme of death in "Dreams of My Russian Summers". Consider not only the physical deaths but the death of innocence or the death of ignorance.

(see the answer keys)

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