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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 did the sectarian need his extra portion of food to do? ("Quiet.")

2. In "Major Pugachov's Last Battle," what keys did Gorbunov come to the guardhouse to get?

3. In "Sententious," how many shotguns were kept in the tent of the narrator?

4. In "Prosthetic Appliances," what would a guard mark a cell with if the cell was not to receive bread?

5. What did Pesniakevich's mother own in Minsk? ("Prosthetic Appliances.")

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did the convicts that had been in the camps take their bread back to their barracks? ("Major Pugachov's Last Battle")

2. How did the story "Sententious" end?

3. What materials were needed to make the playing cards that the men in "On Tick" used?

4. Why did the narrator state that love was the hardest emotion to return to convicts? ("Sententious.")

5. Why were camp officials perplexed by the convicts avoidance of the bathhouse?

6. Who did Gloubev recognize in the hospital as he was recovering from his appendectomy? ("A Piece of Meat.")

7. Why did Garkunov die at the end of "On Tick"?

8. Given that convicts were not allowed to see a thermometer, how did they know when temperatures reached 60 degrees below zero in "Carpenters"?

9. In the story "In The Night," how did Bagretsov cut his finger?

10. In "Sententious," who did the narrator say that he envied?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many of the guards in the stories are described by their attitudes towards the camp convicts. Describe the different ways that guards were described, how these descriptions mandated how convicts felt about the guards, and how the convicts acted around different guards based upon their dispositions.

Essay Topic 2

Magic seemed to be the only way that some men made it out of the camps of Kolyma alive. Discuss three examples throughout the text where "magic" seemed to be responsible for survival. (Think of how "magic" was depicted in the story "Magic" to help answer this question.)

Essay Topic 3

Objects from the civilian world held great value for the men of Kolyma. Discuss three objects from the civilized world, what was done to keep the object in the possession of the owner, why the owner lost the possession, and how the owner felt about their possession.

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