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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. When the younger sister is "piqued," what is she feeling?
2. What problem does the new steward create for the local peasants?
3. The story opens with two sisters. What does the older sister's husband do for a living?
4. Whom does Pahom accuse of stripping his trees?
5. What is Pahom's first reaction when he learns that people are moving to a new settlement?
Short Essay Questions
1. What prevents the peasants from buying the nearby landowner's land as a group instead of as individuals?
2. What sequence of events with Simon follows Pahom's discovery of the stripped trees?
3. How does Pahom's relationship with his community change, and what are two specific pieces of evidence for this change?
4. In Chapter I, what is ironic about where Pahom is while he listens to his wife and her sister talk?
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. In Chapter I, what is ironic about the conversation between the two sisters?
7. When the devil overhears Pahom's thoughts, what does he vow to do?
8. What changes the relationship between the woman who owns land near the village and the peasants, and how does the relationship change?
9. In what two ways is Pahom's first decision to buy land different from his later decisions?
10. What sacrifices do Pahom and his family make for the first plot of land that they buy?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
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 2
Explain several ways in which Pahom alienates his community.
Essay Topic 3
In Chapter I, when the sisters are talking, Pahom's wife tells her sister, "We may live roughly, but at least we are free from anxiety. You live in better style than we do, but though you often earn more than you need, you are very likely to lose all you have. You know the proverb, 'Loss and gain are brothers twain.'" Write an essay that explains the meaning of this quote and why, in the context of this story, it is heavily ironic.
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This section contains 1,032 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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