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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. How does Nafisi refer to her male acquaintance?

2. Why do the students meet in Nafisi's apartment?

3. Why does the professor ask Nima if his wife brainwashed him?

4. What does Nafisi describe as the crux of the problem in "Lolita"?

5. What causes Manna and Nima to fall in love?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Nafisi describe the three types of women portrayed in "A Thousand and One Nights"?

2. Why does Nafisi believe the scene where Humbert picked up Lolita at summer camp is the heart of Nabokov's novel?

3. Why does Nafisi refer to two photographs in the first chapter?

4. What is the similarity between Lolita's past and the past of Nafisi's students?

5. Why does Nafisi consider Humbert to be a seducer of the readers of "Lolita"?

6. Why do Mitra and the other students find the Thursday study group to be significant?

7. Why does Nassrin say she has been caught in the middle of tradition and change her entire life?

8. How do the university officials react to Nafisi before and after her resignation?

9. Why does Nafisi agree with Nabokov's statement that every great novel is a fairy tale?

10. In Chapter 2, why does Nafisi describe the first meeting of the study group in present tense instead of past tense?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Nafisi opens the book by asking the reader to imagine the secret class. She ends the book by wondering if she imagined the magician. Throughout the memoir, she mentions imagination in connection to the Iranian regime, to the authors of the fictional novels she teaches, and in the lives of herself and her students. What is the role of imagination in "Reading Lolita in Tehran"? How do each of those characters (the regime, the authors, Nafisi, her students) view imagination?

Essay Topic 2

"Reading Lolita in Tehran" is not told chronologically. The use of flashbacks and the telling of the story in segmented historical pieces distributed across multiple sections determines the shape for the novel. How does the element of time shape the reader's understanding of the memoir's major points? How does the element of time shape the reader's understanding of the characters Nafisi develops?

Essay Topic 3

In Part 3, Chapter 18, Nafisi describes a "perfectly equipped failure." In Part 3, Chapter 26, Nafisi provides characteristics of a traditional heroine. Using the descriptions and characteristics provided in these chapters, write an essay that addresses the following questions:

1) Would Laleh be considered a heroine or a perfectly equipped failure?

2) Would Razieh be considered a heroine or a perfectly equipped failure?

3) Which does Nafisi consider more worthy of admiration, a heroine or a perfectly equipped failure?

(see the answer keys)

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