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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 the reader told is "all" the Bashkir men care about?

2. How do the Bashkirs react when Pahom asks for land?

3. What is the "kumiss" that the Bashkir women make?

4. What is surprising about the chief of the Bashkirs?

5. How much land does Pahom agree to buy in the new settlement?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Pahom asks the Bashkirs for some land, what is their response?

2. What deal does Pahom strike to buy some land of his own in the settlement beyond the Volga?

3. What is the price of the land the Bashkirs offer Pahom, and how much land do they offer?

4. After the chief offers Pahom land, how does Pahom respond, and why?

5. When Pahom and his family arrive in the new settlement beyond the Volga, what does he do first, and what is the result?

6. What procedure do the Bashkirs outline for marking the land that Pahom claims?

7. What deal does the traveling dealer tell Pahom he was able to get on land from the Bashkir?

8. What is the response of the Bashkirs to Pahom's arrival?

9. How does the text contrast the life of the Bashkirs with the life of Russian peasants, and what is ironic in this description?

10. What causes Pahom to become dissatisfied with his situation in the new settlement?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

After Pahom is fined for his animals' trespass on his neighbor's land, the reader is told that "Pahom paid, but grumbled, and, going home in a temper, was rough with his family." What does this sentence imply? Why would Tolstoy choose to include this detail? What significance does it have for the overall story?

Essay Topic 2

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 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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