View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What, in "Chief of Political Control," was summoning the hospital director?

2. In "My First Tooth," what was written in coal on the walls of the basement?

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

4. Once on the train, who did the narrator find in his seat? ("The Train.")

5. Stories of what bridge made Golubev's boss ecstatic? ("Magic.")

Short Essay Questions

1. Why was the narrator afraid to get off of the train at any station other than the Moscow station? ("The Train.")

2. What bliss did the narrator find while in Irkutsk? ("The Train.")

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

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

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

6. Why did Golubev watch Stukov's "game" with pleasure? ("Magic.")

7. In "A Child's Drawing," why did the convicts stand in groups of five when guards were dividing out work assignments?

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

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

10. Why did Gusev break the window in the basement of the former monastery? ("My First Tooth.")

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many of the convicts in the text found truth in the saying "Desperate times bring about desperate measures." Discuss three different examples within the text that proved this statement to be true.

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

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 768 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample