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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 does the narrator realize about Charlotte?

2. What does Mr. Bond encourage the narrator to do?

3. What does the young French boy want to do with his watch?

4. How does the narrator feel as he is wandering the streets near his temporary home?

5. What are the tekhnars?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator do after he accidentally insults a girl at a dance?

2. How did the narrator's book do and when does he remember something Charlotte told him when he saw his first coffin?

3. What does the narrator begin to learn in Chapter 12 in class to protect the fatherland and how does he feel about the process of learning this?

4. What catches the narrator's attention almost obsessively?

5. What does the narrator feel when he is staying in the tombs and what symptoms did he think he had?

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

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

8. How does Pashka almost drown once?

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

10. Why does the narrator hire a private detective?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The narration creates a sense of mystery, engaging the reader in the narrator's quest for truth. In this case, there are two different truths - what happened to Charlotte, and where does the narrator fit?

1. Explain what you think the above statements mean. Use examples from the text to support your answer.

2. Using just the text from the first chapter, argue whether the search for who is Charlotte is the most important aspect of the story or the problems of who the narrator is.

3. Explain what about the sense of mystery in the first chapter goaded you to continue reading the book. Use examples from the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

The relationship between the narrator and his grandmother has changed completely, due in part to the narrator's age since he is now entering his teenage years. He doesn't feel like he can connect to Charlotte's fairy tale stories about France any more because he knows the gritty truth about French history thanks to his studies. When Charlotte attempts to create the magical world of Atlantis for the narrator, he finds himself drifting off, not listening to the stories, imagining another world, further away from his grandmother than he's ever felt before. Charlotte recognizes the change, too, and soon their conversations about the past disappear.

1. Discuss why you think the narrator's change in age changed his relationship with his grandmother. Use examples from "Dreams of My Russian Summers" to support your answer.

2. How do you think the separation between the narrator and his grandmother affected her emotionally? Use examples from "Dreams of My Russian Summers" to support your answer.

3. Do you think knowing the truth about a country will always cause a person to not want to listen to possible fantasy stories about that countries? Why or why not? Use examples from "Dreams of My Russian Summers" to support your answer.

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.

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