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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. Why can Pahom not plant the same crop on his land in the second year?

3. What kind of homes do the Bashkirs live in?

4. Which word is a synonym for "haggle"?

5. What will Pahom do with "pasturage"?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

What do you think of the relationship between the two sisters? Does it seem healthy? What might be the cause of the older sister trying to make her younger sister feel bad about her life? How does this tie into the theme of the story?

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.

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