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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 4, Chapter 12, where do Nafisi and her husband go?

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

3. What does Nafisi emphasize in the introductory course she teaches in Part 3?

4. What game does Nafisi play when she begins wearing a black robe?

5. Why does Nafisi form a friendship with Jeff?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Nafisi do during her early years as a professor at the University of Tehran?

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

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

5. How are the contemporary events in Iran similar to the events that Nafisi describes in her classroom?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

On Nafisi's first day of teaching at the University of Tehran, she asks the students what fiction should accomplish. Using examples from the text, write an essay comparing and contrasting the answer from the perspective of one of the students in Nafisi's student class and the answer from the perspective of Mr. Bahri of Mr. Nyazi.

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the memoir, Nafisi returns to the issue of wearing the veil. Write an essay that addresses Nafisi's feelings about the veil. What does the veil represent for Nafisi personally? What does it represent for her professionally? How is the veil used as a symbol in this book?

(see the answer keys)

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