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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 town, inaccessible to Europeans, do Skridlov and Gurdjieff want to go to after visiting Bukara?

2. What did Ekim Bey and Gurdjieff do when they reached Old Tashkent?

3. With whom is Gurdjieff reunited at the monastery and what do they do together?

4. How did Gurdjieff and Karpenko meet the girl they both fell in love with?

5. What caused Yelov to lose his wealth as a book and stationery store owner?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where is Yelov and what is he doing when Gurdjieff meets him?

2. What does Gurdjieff remember about Yelov?

3. What does Yelov comment on that gives Gurdjieff an idea for making more money.

4. What does Ekim Bey later study that brings in money?

5. What do Gurdjieff and his friends decide to do together?

6. Where and when do Gurdjieff and Karpenko meet?

7. Where does Ekim Bey show up four years after he first meets Gurdjieff and what happens there?

8. What was the main lesson Skridlov and Gurdjieff learned in the Monastery?

9. How does Gurdjieff corner the local market in plaster casts?

10. What do Skridlov and Gurdjieff disguise themselves as and how?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

1) Describe the situation of the European painter who was so highly praised by a German newspaper. Was he really a great painter? What happened in the story?

2) How did a literary critic cause the suicide of a young couple?

3) Describe the music critic Gurdjieff judges as a phony in the book. Why does Gurdjieff feel the man has no right to be a music critic?

4) Choose one of the three questions and answer in as much detail as possible.

Essay Topic 2

1) How do Gurdjieff and Pogossian get passage on a ship to Egypt from the town of Smyrna (modern Izamr in Turkey)?

2) What does Pogossian decide to do when he and Gurdjieff arrive in the port of Alexandria, Egypt?

3) What does Gurdjieff decide to do in Egypt? What two men who become important in his life does he meet in Cairo? Under what circumstances?

4) Write on one of the three topics.

Essay Topic 3

1) Gurdjieff's father was an ashokh. Describe what an ashokh did and in what language?

2) What did Gurdjieff's father do on evenings before Sundays and holidays? Why was what he did a big influence on Gurdjieff in his later life?

3) What legend Dean Korsh and Gurdjieff's father discuss which could be compared to the story of Noah and the ark? Tell something about it.

4) Choose one of the above topics and write about it.

(see the answer keys)

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