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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 is Pahom's first reaction when he learns that people are moving to a new settlement?

2. What does Pahom do when the court rules against him?

3. What bothers Pahom the most about the stripping of bark from his trees?

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

5. The story opens with two sisters. What does the older sister's husband do for a living?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 the conversation between the two sisters?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At the beginning of Chapter II, the reader learns that "Close to the village there lived a lady, a small landowner, who had an estate of about three hundred acres. She had always lived on good terms with the peasants...." Write an essay in which you explain how this detail comments on Pahom's subsequent difficulties with his community.

Essay Topic 2

In the seventeenth century, the Cavalier poet Robert Herrick wrote a two-line poem about poverty:

Who with a little cannot be content,

Endures an everlasting punishment.

Write an essay in which you explain the meaning of Herrick's poem and discuss how his theme connects to Tolstoy's story "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay in which you offer both textual and historical evidence that several characters in "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" can be read allegorically.

(see the answer keys)

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