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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Commentary, Lines 1-4: I was the shadow of the waxwing slain, etc. through Line 70: the new TV.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the name of John Shade's aunt?
(a) She is never mentioned by name.
(b) Hazel.
(c) Sybil.
(d) Maude.

2. What does Shade find out when he tracks down the woman who had the same vision of the after-life that he did?
(a) She also had a daughter who passed away recently.
(b) She is married to Charles Kinbote.
(c) She is a Zemblan queen.
(d) She had a different vision.

3. Of the following, what do John Shade and the assassin have in common?
(a) They were both born in Russia.
(b) They both were orphaned.
(c) They were both Zemblan kings.
(d) They both had aunts who were put in an asylum.

4. Who sets up John Shade's daughter on a blind date?
(a) Dr. Sutton.
(b) His secretary.
(c) His aunt.
(d) Kinbote.

5. What happens to John Shade's aunt?
(a) She has a heart attack and dies.
(b) She falls down the stairs and breaks her hip.
(c) She drowns in a lake.
(d) She has a stroke and is moved to a sanitarium.

Short Answer Questions

1. How old was Shade when he wrote Canto Two?

2. Who or what does John Shade claim to see in his near-death experience?

3. "Pale Fire" is broken up into how many cantos?

4. Which pair best describe the prominent motifs of the first Canto?

5. Kinbote notes that the poem alludes to what fictional character?

(see the answer key)

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