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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 select her students for the small study group?

2. Why does the male student have to meet with Nafisi separately?

3. What symbol does Nafisi think of when she thinks of Lolita?

4. Why does Nafisi consider Humbert, Lolita's molester, such a frightening character?

5. What does Nafisi share with her male acquaintance in Chapter 16?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. How is Professor X's method of teaching literature different than Nafisi's method of teaching literature?

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

5. According to Vera Nabokov, what is the beauty in "Lolita" and why is it missed by critics?

6. Why does Nafisi include Part 1, Chapter 12 in her memoir?

7. Why does Nafisi ask her children about their memories of Iran?

8. Why do the magician and Nafisi enjoy each other's company so much?

9. In Part 1, Chapter 18, the room where the class meets becomes a character. How does Nafisi describe the room?

10. Why is it difficult to find a copy of "Lolita" in Tehran?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

"Reading Lolita in Tehran" centers around literature, a written form of art. Choose another art form (dance, music, visual art) and discuss the use of that art form in all four sections of the book. What is the role or roles of art in the Iranian Islamic Republic? What role or roles does art play in the fictional works Nafisi teaches? What role or roles does art play in the life of Nafisi? In the lives of her students?

Essay Topic 2

Nafisi presents several male students as passionate about the values of the Islamist Republic of Iran. In what ways are Mr. Bahri, Mr. Nyazi, and Mr. Ghomi similar? In what ways are they different? Which one of those students is portrayed as being in closest agreement with the regime? What evidence supports your choice?

Essay Topic 3

Choose one of the students from one of Nafisi's University classes and one of the students from Nafisi's secret class. Describe how the life of each character was shaped through his or her interaction with fiction. What role or roles does fiction play in the life of that character? Does the character change at all through his or her interaction with fiction?

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