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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Mademoiselle provide Vladimir with an extra hour or two out of the darkness?
(a) He sits with him while he falls asleep.
(b) She allows him to fall asleep in her room.
(c) She leaves a candle lit by his bed.
(d) The light from her lamp gives a little light to his room.

2. To what is Nabokov's mother quite sensitive?
(a) Seemingly small events.
(b) Insults.
(c) Insect bites.
(d) Perfume.

3. To whom does Nabokov feel the strongest bond of kinship?
(a) His father's maternal grandfather, Nikolay Illarionovich Kozlov.
(b) His mother's paternal grandfather, Nikolay Illarionovich Kozlov.
(c) His mother's maternal grandfather, Nikolay Illarionovich Kozlov.
(d) His father's paternal grandfather, Nikolay Illarionovich Kozlov.

4. Why, when Nabokov is a child, is he terrified of the dark?
(a) He is afraid his home will catch on fire.
(b) He thinks burglars will come into his room.
(c) He seems to lose himself in the pitch black.
(d) He is afraid of monsters under his bed.

5. What is memorable about this first memory?
(a) He understands that he is a separate being from his father and mother.
(b) He wonders where his parents are.
(c) He realizes he has the ability to control his own body.
(d) He understands that everyone must eat.

Short Answer Questions

1. To what does Nabokov compare existence?

2. What has Nabokov always had difficulty doing?

3. What is a battle against the yawning darkness?

4. Why does Nabokov's father force the family to leave a sidewalk cafe?

5. What is the process by which Vladimir Nabokov writes "Speak, Memory?"

(see the answer key)

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