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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What kind of verbs does Jaromil love?
(a) Verbs that are related to love.
(b) Complicated verbs related to the emotions.
(c) Verbs that describe the power of the future.
(d) Simple verbs that describe one motion.

2. When Maman returns home early one evening while the redhead is visiting, what does she pretend is happening?
(a) She is sick and needs Jaromil to take care of her.
(b) She is having a heart attack in the kitchen.
(c) Jaromil is disobeying a house rule and the redhead must leave.
(d) The redhead is having cramps and needs her help.

3. How does Maman destroy the intimacy between Jaromil and herself?
(a) By looking down on the redhead because of her job.
(b) By suggesting that the redhead sleeps around.
(c) By telling Jaromil he could find a better girl.
(d) By insulting the redhead's manners.

4. When Jaromil has difficulty undressing the redhead, what is the girl wearing?
(a) A dress with large white buttons down the front.
(b) A thin negligee.
(c) A dress with small black buttons down the back.
(d) A grey dress with a wide collar.

5. While walking with the redhead one day, whom does Jaromil see?
(a) The janitor's son.
(b) Maman and the beautiful cinematographer.
(c) The brunette he had fallen in love with long ago.
(d) Maman and her new lover.

6. What disguise does Jaromil use for treating the redhead with cruelty?
(a) Wounded love.
(b) Concern for the girl.
(c) Anger at Maman.
(d) Concern for their relationship.

7. Just outside the prison, why does the girl hate to see the horses and riders?
(a) She feels far below them and pitiful by comparison.
(b) She thinks they are out to capture people, possibly her.
(c) She has always been afraid of horses.
(d) She takes it as a bad omen.

8. According to Kundera, who ruled the epoch about which he is writing?
(a) The young people.
(b) The hangman and the poet.
(c) The judge and the lawyer.
(d) The farmer and the factory worker.

9. Why does the newspaper editor not want to publish Jaromil's poems?
(a) The editor thinks they are poorly written.
(b) The newspaper gets submissions from a dozen new poets a day.
(c) Jaromil is rude when he asks about the poems he had submitted.
(d) The editor disagrees with Jaromil's Marxist beliefs which are expressed in several poems.

10. What happens when a classmate asks Jaromil about the redhead?
(a) He replies that she is his cousin.
(b) He replies that she is a casual acquaintance.
(c) He refuses to answer the question, out of embarrassment.
(d) He replies that she is the love of his life.

11. How does the film begin?
(a) With Maman recounting childhood memories with Jaromil.
(b) With Jaromil reciting his most famous poem.
(c) With a home recording of Jaromil as a child.
(d) With pictures of Jaromil as a child.

12. How old is Jaromil when he catches pneumonia?
(a) Twenty-four.
(b) Twenty.
(c) Nineteen.
(d) Twenty-six.

13. Why has the middle-aged man arranged signals with the people who visit him?
(a) He is a spy and needs to know who is visiting.
(b) He likes to pretend that he is part of a covert operation.
(c) He does not trust that the person at the door is a friend.
(d) He hates to be surprised by visitors.

14. At the end of Part 6, what sound does Kundera hear?
(a) Jaromil's breath.
(b) Death stamping its feet.
(c) The future walking.
(d) The rustle of bedclothes.

15. Who was the first man the redheaded girl slept with?
(a) A childhood friend.
(b) A fellow student at the university.
(c) A middle-aged man in the city.
(d) An older man in her village.

Short Answer Questions

1. What personal aspect was considered a political crime during Jaromil's time?

2. When Jaromil wants to recite poetry to the redhead, what disturbing thought occurs to him?

3. What makes Maman think that Jaromil is actually becoming like a son of Apollo?

4. The last time the man and girl had seen each other, what had they talked about?

5. While Jaromil is talking with the redhead about love, how does death enter the conversation?

(see the answer keys)

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