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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. To Jaromil, what does Xavier represent?
(a) Dream, poetry, and action.
(b) The horror of poetic ambition lived out.
(c) The furthest extent of his dreams.
(d) The man he will one day become.

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

3. What one item fills the man's apartment with nostalgia and melancholy?
(a) The girl's downcast face.
(b) The ring on the girl's left hand.
(c) A picture of the girl.
(d) The girl's brown shabby coat.

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

5. How does Jaromil feel after talking to the police about the redhead's brother?
(a) Afraid for the train of events he has started.
(b) Confident and more decisive.
(c) Emotionally shaken.
(d) Eager to help the state.

6. What is Jaromil's opinion of the redhead's family?
(a) They prevent her from being completely immersed in his love.
(b) They constitute the one reason the girl will not elope with JaromiL.
(c) They provide vital support for the girl.
(d) They tie to girl to the past rather than freeing her for the future.

7. What boosts Jaromil's confidence before the poetry reading at the police academy?
(a) Five of his poems were recently published.
(b) The janitor's son has complete assurance in his poetic ability.
(c) He is the youngest and therefore the face of the future.
(d) Maman recently praised him for his poetry.

8. What had the middle-aged man done when the girl was arrested?
(a) Tore up her picture and called her an enemy of the future.
(b) Pleaded with a judge to free her.
(c) Tried his best to rescue her.
(d) Gotten another girlfriend.

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

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

11. At the beginning of Part 6, Chapter 1, what does Kundera do with the story?
(a) Makes Maman the main character of the story.
(b) Moves the point of observation to another character.
(c) Dismisses Jaromil as an unimportant character.
(d) Begins to intersperse his prose with lots of poetry.

12. Who is most upset that the bus stop was moved two blocks away from the villa?
(a) The organizer of the poetry recitation.
(b) The pretty cinematographer.
(c) The man with the wooden leg.
(d) The middle-aged woman.

13. The night of the party, what does Maman realize about the cinematographer?
(a) She loves the girl more than Jaromil does.
(b) The girl would be an excellent daughter-in-law.
(c) The girl is a Communist spy.
(d) The girl will scheme up anything to get what she wants.

14. What happens to Jaromil's uncle?
(a) He leaves his wife to hide in a remote village.
(b) He is charged with fraud and imprisoned.
(c) He is charged with being an enemy of the state and imprisoned.
(d) He contracts pneumonia and dies.

15. After the girl rejects the man's caresses, what does she wish he were?
(a) Dead.
(b) A very young child.
(c) A very old man or woman.
(d) A dog, preferably small.

Short Answer Questions

1. What question does the middle-aged woman have for the group of poets?

2. What location is Maman most excited to film in?

3. What does Lermontov assert is the highest quality in life?

4. At the end of Part 6, what sound does Kundera hear?

5. Why does the girl come to see the man rather than going home?

(see the answer keys)

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