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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. In Part 3, Chapter 4, who asks to meet with Nafisi?

2. Why does Nafisi state it is important to introduce her students to the works of Saul Bellow?

3. What gift does Nafisi give to the magician?

4. In Part 3, Chapter 14, which former student comes to see Nafisi?

5. What does Nyazi consider to be a positive aspect of "The Great Gatsby"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the impact of Iran's war with Iraq?

2. Nafisi first mentions the magician in Part 1, Chapter 10. Why does she wait until Part 2, Chapter 20, to describe him more fully?

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

4. Part 2, Chapter 11 begins with a quote from Mike Gold, "Art is useful as bread." How is this quote related to the rest of the chapter and to previous incidents in Nafisi's text?

5. How are Mr. Ghoni's statements about "Daisy Miller" in Part 3, Chapter 15, similar to Mr. Nyazi's statements in Part 3, Chapters 17 and 18, about "The Great Gatsby"?

6. What happens to Nafisi during her discussion with Mr. Bahri about wearing the veil?

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

8. What does Nafisi mean when she says that the real day of the Ayatollah's death has not yet occurred?

9. Why does Nafisi call Catherine in "Washington Square" the inverse of our ideas about what a heroine should be?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

"Reading Lolita in Tehran" is divided into four parts, and each part centers around a novel. The book's title emphasizes only one novel, "Lolita." "Lolita" is the emphasis for the first section of the book. Why do you think that "Lolita" was mentioned in the book title instead of the other novels discussed? Was this a good choice? If not, which of the other novels would have been more suitable and why?

Essay Topic 2

Women are central characters in Nafisi's text and in the texts that Nafisi chooses to teach. Early in the book, Nafisi present three types of women in "A Thousand and One Nights." Of those types, which best represents the majority of the women in the Iranian Republic? Which type represents Nafisi's students? Which type represents Nafisi?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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