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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. On the train, in "The Train," what did the narrator state was his first happiness?

2. According to "The Lawyers' Plot," how many paths led out of the mine?

3. What was told, at the end of "The Lawyers' Plot", had happened to Rebrov?

4. According to Golubev's boss in "Magic," who are all of the carpenters?

5. What, in "Land-Lease," was nicknamed "American honey"?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. What happened at the end of "Esperanto" to the narrator"?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the impact that the text had on you. Did you feel as though the text was a stretch of the truth? Did you feel as though the information given by the author was truthful and realistic? Support your focus with textual evidence.

Essay Topic 3

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.

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