Print
Word
PDF
|
| Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
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 reaction to the trouble with the steward?
2. When Pahom feels "aggrieved," what is he feeling?
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. In which situation might someone "grease your palm"?
5. Whom does Pahom accuse of stripping his trees?
Short Essay Questions
1. In Chapter I, what is ironic about where Pahom is while he listens to his wife and her sister talk?
2. What changes the relationship between the woman who owns land near the village and the peasants, and how does the relationship change?
3. In what two ways is Pahom's first decision to buy land different from his later decisions?
4. 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?
5. How does Pahom's relationship with his community change, and what are two specific pieces of evidence for this change?
6. What prevents the peasants from buying the nearby landowner's land as a group instead of as individuals?
7. What sacrifices do Pahom and his family make for the first plot of land that they buy?
8. What sequence of events with Simon follows Pahom's discovery of the stripped trees?
9. When the devil overhears Pahom's thoughts, what does he vow to do?
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
Explain several ways in which Pahom alienates his community.
Essay Topic 3
In April 1935, James Joyce sent his daughter Lucia some of Tolstoy's books; in his accompanying letter, he wrote that "How Much Land Does a Man Need" was "the greatest story that the literature of the world knows." You may not agree with this sentiment, but what do you imagine would cause a writer of Joyce's immense talent to so appreciate this very minor work of Tolstoy's? Write an essay in which you defend at least three separate claims for the merits of this short story.
|
This section contains 1,035 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
|
