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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Nabokov claim stems more from an ecological longing for the place of his birth, than in his family's loss of property and station?
(a) His anger toward the French.
(b) His anger toward the Bolsheviks.
(c) His anger toward the British.
(d) His anger toward the Germans.

2. What is young Vladimir's main concern?
(a) Whether or not he can play in the forest.
(b) Whether or not he can play with his friends down the road.
(c) Whether or not he will be able to go hunting for new and rare butterflies.
(d) Whether or not he will be able to go horseback riding.

3. Why does Nabokov's father force the family to leave a sidewalk cafe?
(a) The father notices two Japanese officers dining at a nearby table.
(b) His father sees an old acquaintance he would rather avoid.
(c) The food is not edible.
(d) The wait staff is slow and untrained.

4. Why is the family forced to leave Russia?
(a) Their visas have expired.
(b) Their religion is being persecuted.
(c) The father is in trouble with the police.
(d) The revolution has ended.

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

6. What is one of his other memories?
(a) Playing tag with his younger brother.
(b) Getting his foot stuck in the crib.
(c) Getting lost in the estate's vast forest.
(d) A dark tunnel through which he crawls, behind a divan in his parent's home.

7. What are two events that Nabokov remembers watching outside his mother's window?
(a) The training of horses and the revolutionary action in the street.
(b) The training of horses and the village children on their way to school.
(c) Mr. Burness' arrival nad the village children on their way to school.
(d) Mr. Burness' arrival and the revolutionary action in the street.

8. What does Nabokov learn to read and write before Russian or French?
(a) Dutch.
(b) Swedish.
(c) German.
(d) English.

9. This chapter is the first recorded work, published in French in 1936, under the name "Mademoiselle O."
(a) Chapter Two.
(b) Chapter Seven.
(c) Chapter Four.
(d) Chapter Five.

10. Where do the children bathe?
(a) French bathing tubs.
(b) English portable tubs.
(c) Russian baths.
(d) The creek on the estate.

11. The rest of the chapters are published separately, mainly by whom?
(a) The New Yorker.
(b) The New York Times.
(c) The Chicago Tribune.
(d) The St. Petersburg Publishing House.

12. In exile in America, when a ranger or marshal spots him traipsing into the backwoods, net in hand, what is he asked?
(a) What the net is for.
(b) Where his guide is.
(c) If he has a fishing license.
(d) What he is doing in the woods.

13. What is the common name for Boletusoften?
(a) Blue grass.
(b) Tropical hibiscus.
(c) Tube mushrooms.
(d) Red geraniums.

14. From where is the family returning to Russia?
(a) An autumn in London.
(b) Almost an entire year abroad.
(c) A summer in France.
(d) A winter in Greece.

15. Why does Nabokov's mother often wander the estate's forest?
(a) It helps clear her mind.
(b) To search for mushrooms.
(c) She becomes lost easily.
(d) She loves the estate property.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does little Vladimir close his eyes at the bottom of each stairway?

2. When do they arrive in Paris?

3. What does Nabokov's mother do on the trip to Paris?

4. What game does the whole family often play on the estate?

5. Of what descent is Nabokov's mother?

(see the answer keys)

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