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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 does the expression "racked his brains" mean?
(a) Felt very sad.
(b) Stared into space without thinking.
(c) Searched hard for an answer.
(d) Organized his thoughts.

2. Which character thinks "I'll give you land enough; and by means of that land I will get you into my power"?
(a) The devil.
(b) Simon.
(c) Pahom's brother-in-law.
(d) The local landowner.

3. In which situation might someone "grease your palm"?
(a) If you were trying to do something you had never done before.
(b) If you were judging a contest they were in.
(c) If you were asking to have them predict your future.
(d) If you were getting ready to do manual labor.

4. What does the stranger staying at Pahom's house overnight tell Pahom?
(a) Life in the countryside is difficult but secure.
(b) That people in the new settlement beyond the Volga are making good money.
(c) Life in town is very risky.
(d) The Bashkir are selling land very cheaply.

5. What problem does the new steward create for the local peasants?
(a) He does not supervise his cattle properly.
(b) He demands payment of the peasants' outstanding loans.
(c) He refuses to sell seed to those who do not own their own land.
(d) He fines them when their animals trespass on his employer's land.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Pahom's reaction to the trouble with the steward?

2. How far does Pahom walk in order to get to the new settlement?

3. 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"?

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

5. While the sisters talk, who is hiding behind the oven?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. 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?

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

(see the answer keys)

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