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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 was the narrator sitting by at the opening of "The Snake Charmer"?

2. What dessert were the prisoners fed in "Quiet"?

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

4. According to Merzlakov, who were the first to die in the camps?

5. What prints did the men in "Dry Rations" follow to get to the spring?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What did the narrator say about death in "Sententious"?

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

4. What notations did the guards, described in "Prosthetic Appliances", use to show that a convict would not receive hot food and/or bread?

5. What plans did Bagretsov have for the underwear that he took off of the corpse?

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

7. What did the extra food give the sectarian the energy to do in "Quiet"?

8. Why was the Siberian dwarf cedar called a "weatherman" by the narrator?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Given the dehumanizing circumstances that the narrator relayed throughout the text, many instances of true humanity shone through. Discuss three examples where humanity won out over animalistic behavior in the text.

Essay Topic 2

Many of the men in the forced-labor camps of Kolyma changed during their stay. Choose of of the people described in the text and discuss how they changed because of their stay at Kolyma.

Essay Topic 3

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.)

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