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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 12.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why does little Vladimir close his eyes at the bottom of each stairway?
(a) He and his mother are playing a game on the way to the children's sleeping rooms.
(b) His nanny is coaxing him up the stairs.
(c) His father is taking him to bed.
(d) He and his brother are playing hide and seek.

2. Why do they hire the village schoolmaster, though he is not technically one of the family's regular tutors?
(a) To give them mathematics lessons.
(b) To give them writing lessons.
(c) To give them French lessons.
(d) To give them a crash course in the Russian language.

3. Of what are Nabokov's memories in a Russian setting?
(a) A quite French childhood.
(b) A quite German childhood.
(c) A quite English childhood.
(d) A quite Russian childhood.

4. What tutor looks like the French actor Max Linder?
(a) A Russian literature tutor.
(b) A polish medical student.
(c) A Greek spelling teacher.
(d) A graduate student.

5. Why does the relationship fizzle out?
(a) Nabokov's father finds out.
(b) Tamara moves back to St. Petersburg and gets a job.
(c) Tamara is tired of him.
(d) They no longer have anything in common.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Nabokov have secret spots?

2. Who are Miss Norcott and Miss Hunt?

3. How does Mr. Cummings influence Nabokov's scientific drawings of butterflies?

4. What would change throughout Nabokov's childhood, depending on the prevailing advice of the family's current medical consultant?

5. Why is Nabokov's tutor rebuked by his mother?

(see the answer key)

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