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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. Why does Nafisi state it is important to introduce her students to the works of Saul Bellow?
(a) Because she believes her students should read more American authors.
(b) Because Bellow provides an aesthetic counterpoint to the limitations of Austen's novels.
(c) Because Bellow shows the problems and fears of the West, and Nafisi believes her students look at the West uncritically.
(d) Because Bellow presents Western society as not being decadent, and Nafisi believes her students need to see Western culture as not being decadent.

2. What does Mr. Forsati want to do?
(a) Work as an official in the Iranian regime.
(b) Marry one of Nafisi's students.
(c) Write a novel about life in Iran.
(d) Start a company related to videos and films.

3. Who delays Nafisi's expulsion from the university?
(a) Mr. Bahir and some of Nafisi's former students.
(b) Nafisi's secular colleagues.
(c) Dr. A.
(d) The Committee on the Cultural Revolution.

4. Where is the narrator at the beginning of the first chapter in Part II?
(a) In her apartment in Tehran.
(b) In graduate school in the United States.
(c) At the Tehran airport.
(d) At the University of Tehran.

5. What does Nyazi consider to be a positive aspect of "The Great Gatsby"?
(a) It exposes the immorality of American society.
(b) It describes the way society should function.
(c) It presents the American Dream.
(d) It provides a model of a good marriage relationship.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Part 2, Chapter 14, what do the police do to the women at the protest meeting?

2. In Part 3, Chapter 6, why does Nafisi join a group?

3. What teaching technique does Nafisi use in conjunction with the study of "The Great Gatsby"?

4. How does Part 3, Chapter 11 begin?

5. Why does Nafisi include the scene from "Invitation to a Beheading" in Chapter 22?

Short Essay Questions

1. What kind of man is Mr. Bahri?

2. What are the similarities between the lives of the characters in Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and the lives of Nafisi's students?

3. Why does a university staff member describe the Ayatollah's funeral as an event?

4. Why does Nafisi describe herself as becoming irrelevant?

5. Why does the magician tell Nafisi to stop blaming the Islamic Republic for all her problems?

6. Why does the magician tell Nafisi she should return to teaching?

7. Why does Nafisi think teaching "The Great Gatsby" was the right choice for that time and place?

8. How has Miss Ruhi changed since her introduction in Part 3, Chapter 14?

9. What does Nafisi mean by her statement that she "left Iran, but Iran did not leave me?"

10. Why does Nafisi refer to the concert she attends as a parody of the real thing?

(see the answer keys)

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