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| 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 first reaction when he learns that people are moving to a new settlement?
2. Who is the first person that the local landowner offers to sell her land to?
3. What is Pahom's reaction to the trouble with the steward?
4. How does Pahom's wife defend their life to her sister?
5. Which character says that "Loss and gain are brothers twain"?
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. What changes the relationship between the woman who owns land near the village and the peasants, and how does the relationship change?
4. In what two ways is Pahom's first decision to buy land different from his later decisions?
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. 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 the conversation between the two sisters?
8. What sacrifices do Pahom and his family make for the first plot of land that they buy?
9. In Chapter I, what is ironic about where Pahom is while he listens to his wife and her sister talk?
10. When the devil overhears Pahom's thoughts, what does he vow to do?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
How is Pahom's fate related to his class and circumstances? How is it related to his individual character? Write an essay that take a position on what factor is most responsible for his fate, and why.
Essay Topic 2
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.
Essay Topic 3
At the beginning of Chapter III, Tolstoy tells the reader that "Pahom was well contented, and everything would have been right if the neighboring peasants would only not have trespassed on his corn-fields and meadows." What evidence argues that this is not true? Why would Tolstoy have had his narrator say this if it is unlikely to be true? How does this affect the reader's understanding of the narrator's tone, and why does it matter?
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This section contains 1,097 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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