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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. At the end of "The Train," where did the narrator state that he was returning from?

2. Why was Peter Zayats beaten by the guards in "My First Tooth"?

3. What color was the notebook that the men found in "A Child's Drawing"?

4. What did the narrator call "precious things" in "Esperanto"?

5. What were contained in the "magical jars" in the story "Land-Lease"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What "magical powers" did Stukov have? ("Magic")

2. What did convicts receive as payment for keeping their mouths shut about guards beating them? ("The Chief of Political Control.")

3. Why was Stukov contemptuous and delighted by the shifty-eyed man's admittance about his being an informant? ("Magic")

4. What did the bulldozer, in "Land-Lease," come to be used for?

5. Why did Praga, in "Esperanto," hack his clothing to rags?

6. How did the narrator come to remember the story "Esperanto"?

7. According to the narrator in "The Lawyer's Plot," what were the three ways out of the mine?

8. What was the narrator shocked by about the blade of the bulldozer? ("Land-Lease.")

9. Why was Golubev called to Stukov's home in "Magic"?

10. What did Shestakov offer the narrator as nourishment to aid in an upcoming escape attempt? ("Condensed Milk.")

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The author learned many different things during his time spent in Kolyma. Choose two different lessons that the author learned and discuss why these were important. What was the lesson? How was the lesson learned? How did this affect the life of the author after the experience?

Essay Topic 2

Based off of the text as a whole, describe the kind of life that a man in the Kloyma forced-labor camps lived. What did their days consist of? What were their fears? What was expected of them? How were they treated?

Essay Topic 3

What impact does the fact that the text is written in first-person have on you as a reader? Why is a first-person narration important in these types of histories? What would be lost if the stories were complied as third-person narratives?

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This section contains 797 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample