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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 is a steward?
(a) Someone who takes care of someone else's property.
(b) A shop owner.
(c) Someone who rents the land that they farm or graze animals on.
(d) An innkeeper.

2. How many acres does the local landowner have?
(a) 40.
(b) 1,300.
(c) 13,000.
(d) 300.

3. What is Pahom's reaction to the trouble with the steward?
(a) He insists that the family move to a new settlement.
(b) He takes his anger out on his family.
(c) He refuses to have any more dealings with the man.
(d) He takes the steward to court.

4. How do Pahom's neighbors retaliate when he takes them to court?
(a) They let their animals trespass on his land on purpose.
(b) They get him kicked out of the commune.
(c) They press charges against him in court.
(d) They burn down his barn.

5. How far does Pahom walk in order to get to the new settlement?
(a) 30 miles.
(b) 3 miles.
(c) 130 miles.
(d) 300 miles.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Pahom's wife say may happen to a man in town?

2. Which character thinks that "Busy as we are from childhood tilling Mother Earth, we peasants have no time to let any nonsense settle in our heads"?

3. When the younger sister is "piqued," what is she feeling?

4. Who is the first person that the local landowner offers to sell her land to?

5. What does the stranger staying at Pahom's house overnight tell Pahom?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter I, what is ironic about the conversation between the two sisters?

2. When the devil overhears Pahom's thoughts, what does he vow to do?

3. How does Pahom's relationship with his community change, and what are two specific pieces of evidence for this change?

4. What changes the relationship between the woman who owns land near the village and the peasants, and how does the relationship change?

5. Pahom is most angry at the neighbor who has cut down his trees because whoever it was did not just take one or two trees but instead cut down a whole clump of trees. Why does this make Pahom angry, and what is ironic about his anger?

6. What sequence of events with Simon follows Pahom's discovery of the stripped trees?

7. What sacrifices do Pahom and his family make for the first plot of land that they buy?

8. What prevents the peasants from buying the nearby landowner's land as a group instead of as individuals?

9. In Chapter I, what is ironic about where Pahom is while he listens to his wife and her sister talk?

10. In what two ways is Pahom's first decision to buy land different from his later decisions?

(see the answer keys)

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