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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What happens to the class after they read "Madame Bovary"?
(a) Some of the girls decide to leave the study group.
(b) They have a sense of shared intimacy.
(c) The girls begin to take charge of the discussion.
(d) The class agrees to meet in a local cafe.

2. Why do the students meet in Nafisi's apartment?
(a) To escape the University of Tehran.
(b) To plan ways to join the revolution.
(c) To study and discuss literature.
(d) To learn about religious freedom.

3. Why is Nafisi worried about her students?
(a) Because her students show no signs of being individuals.
(b) She is concerned that they will be punished by their families for attending her class.
(c) She is worried that they cannot afford the flowers she expects them to bring.
(d) Because the students are not interested in reading and discussing literature.

4. What is the main reason for Nafisi's resignation from the University of Tehran?
(a) The University of Tehran is too liberal.
(b) She isn't able to do the type of scholarship the government required.
(c) She wants to teach literature to smaller groups in private.
(d) The governance of the University is arbitrary.

5. What does Nafisi's study group conclude about "Lolita"?
(a) She was not the victim she always claimed to be.
(b) She was a despicable and shallow girl.
(c) She was a highly desirable but difficult young woman.
(d) She was the victim of two crimes, losing her life and her own life story.

6. Why are Nafisi's students like ghosts when they are walking through the streets of Tehran?
(a) Because they wear a veil, their skin is very white like a ghost.
(b) They have learned to walk with a gliding motion, barely touching the ground.
(c) They hope to be invisible to the militia and arrive at their destination without confrontation.
(d) Their black clothes hide them when they are walking at night.

7. Nassrin describes herself as being in the middle of what for her whole life?
(a) In the middle of fiction and reality.
(b) In the middle of insubordination and obedience.
(c) In the middle of safety and danger.
(d) In the middle of tradition and change.

8. Why does Nafisi's acquaintance refuse to meet with her students?
(a) He does not like female students.
(b) He is unhappy with Nafisi teaching literature to these girls.
(c) He does not want to get Nafisi in trouble with the authorities.
(d) He is trying to minimize contact with people.

9. Why does the male student have to meet with Nafisi separately?
(a) His schedule does not permit him to meet with the female students.
(b) Nafisi believes that male and female students learn differently.
(c) The female students do not like having a male student in their class.
(d) A group with men and women would arouse suspicion from the Islamist authorities.

10. Where are Nafisi's children when Chapter 19 begins?
(a) Tehran.
(b) At a restaurant.
(c) Washington.
(d) Jail.

11. According to Nafisi, how is the character of Lolita like Nafisi's students?
(a) Lolita and Nafisi's students are perfect images of the ideal woman in a totalitarian regime.
(b) Lolita and Nafisi's students are both stuck in the past, unable to accept present conditions.
(c) Lolita and Nafisi's students are props in someone else's quest to find the perfect image.
(d) Lolita and Nafisi's students both exhibit characteristics of heroism in dealing with their past.

12. What secret does Nassrin tell Nafisi?
(a) She had been sexually abused by her youngest uncle.
(b) She had been married and divorced.
(c) She had left her family to work for an Islamist student group.
(d) She was leaving for America.

13. What scene opens Chapter 12?
(a) The class sitting around a table in Nafisi's apartment.
(b) The members of the class arriving at Nafisi's house.
(c) Nafisi teaching a class at the University.
(d) Nafisi search for books in a bookstore.

14. How did Nafisi learn of her father's arrest?
(a) She was pulled out of her sophomore class in Switzerland.
(b) Her father told her many years later.
(c) She heard her mother telling her sister.
(d) The government came to her house.

15. What happens to the everyday lives of Nafisi and her students as a result of the secret class?
(a) Their everyday lives begin to invade the study group meetings.
(b) Their everyday lives take on the quality of fiction and make-believe.
(c) Their everyday lives are untouched by the secret class.
(d) Their everyday lives become less tolerable.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Nassrin's mother teach her daughter?

2. What is the main point of Chapter 12?

3. How does Nafisi describe her memories?

4. Why does Nafisi return to the two photographs of her students in Chapter 7?

5. What is the dream Nafisi and her students share?

(see the answer keys)

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