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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 Praga, in "Esperanto," do to his clothing?

2. On a how many day march were the men in "My First Tooth" on?

3. In Kolyma, what "keeps secrets and reveals them"? ("Land-Lease.")

4. At the end of "Esperanto," what did Skoroseev ask of the narrator after he had spent the night in his (Skoroseev's) home?

5. Where, in "Magic," was Golubev summoned to?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the narrator describe Romanov in "The Lawyer's Plot"?

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

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

4. Why did the narrator decide that he had not been lucky in getting called to Romanov's home? ("The Lawyer's Plot.")

5. What was written on the cell ceiling of the monastery basement? ("My First Tooth.")

6. Where did the narrator hide his money during his train ride? ("The Train.")

7. What was Kudinov's reasoning for why the convict work gang #4 stood idol on November 12th? ("The Injector.")

8. What game did the lieutenant and the narrator play during "The Train"?

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

10. Why was the new chief of political control at the hospital? ("The Chief of Political Control.")

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

Based upon the text, what three things do you think that the forced-laborers in Kolyma needed to survive? Find three different needs and explain why they were necessary for survival in Kolyma.

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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