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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the first time Jaromil's words save him from punishment?
(a) When he began reciting the encyclopedia.
(b) When his insult was a rhyme.
(c) When he yelled in a trochee speech pattern.
(d) When he used adult vocabulary at a young age.

2. What are the four students singing about while on the train?
(a) Their train ride.
(b) A dead canary.
(c) The skiing holiday.
(d) A summer storm.

3. Who or what is the real source of Jaromil's poetic inspiration?
(a) The children's books his mother read.
(b) His grandpa.
(c) His father's influence.
(d) His talent.

4. Why does Jaromil begin taking lesson from the art teacher?
(a) His art was consistently mediocre.
(b) Maman took an interest in the art teacher.
(c) He thought the art teacher would make a good father.
(d) He was tired of drawing people with dogs' heads.

5. Why does Jaromil write so many poems about women's bodies?
(a) The body is beyond the reach of his understanding.
(b) He wants to immortalize the body of his first lover.
(c) He is obsessed with how women's bodies look.
(d) He wants to establish himself as a romantic poet.

Short Answer Questions

1. What kind of dog does the art teacher have?

2. What pleased the artist the most about Jaromil's drawings?

3. What does Jaromil see as the sign that his verses have true power?

4. To Jaromil, what determines a woman's beauty?

5. What justification does Maman give herself for her initial infidelity?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Jaromil's only school friend? What picture do these two children present?

2. When Jaromil returns at midnight after walking the university girl home, Maman becomes hysterical because she was worried about him. What does this scene show about these two people's perception of love?

3. What is the point of the scene in which Xavier leads his military compatriots to battle? Why does he not get his wish for death?

4. How does the artist's concept of an "inner world" (Part 1, Chapter 6, pg 30) dramatically change Jaromil's character?

5. How does Kundera describe Jaromil's nursing? How does this set the tone for the future relationship between mother and son?

6. At the ski lodge, Xavier kisses the old woman while luring the girl outside in the snow. In this scene, how do the women exchange places in life? How is this emphasized by the colors they wear?

7. Why is Jaromil attracted to the dark-haired girl? What does this attraction show about his development as a character?

8. In Xavier's interactions with the woman in the apartment, what role does water play?

9. How does Part 4 begin? What are the literary advantages to this?

10. While Jaromil is still a child, how does Maman prepare him for success as a writer? How does her preparation, paradoxically, also prepare him for failure?

(see the answer keys)

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