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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What is the first memory Nabokov drags from the darkness?
(a) Being fed by his nanny.
(b) Playing in the yard on the estate.
(c) Holding hands with his mother and father, as the three of them walk along a garden path in 1903,
(d) Going on a picnic with his mother and father.

3. Where does Nabokov's family live until his father's death in 1922?
(a) In Hamburg.
(b) In Brussels.
(c) In Berlin.
(d) In Paris.

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

5. They board the Sud-Express and disembark in what town?
(a) Nice.
(b) Marseille.
(c) Brest.
(d) Biarritz.

6. Who is referred to simply as "Mademoiselle?"
(a) The governess.
(b) His aunt.
(c) His sister.
(d) The tutor.

7. What does this hobby do to him?
(a) It helps him make friends.
(b) It isolates him throughout life.
(c) It encourages him to spend time outside.
(d) It encourages him to study.

8. 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 Bolsheviks.
(b) His anger toward the Germans.
(c) His anger toward the British.
(d) His anger toward the French.

9. After his retirement, from what does Dimitri Nabokov begin to suffer?
(a) Dementia.
(b) Heart disease.
(c) Emphysema.
(d) Arthritis.

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

11. Where does Nabokov's mother trick Dimitri into believing he is still?
(a) In Russia.
(b) In Greece.
(c) In France.
(d) In London.

12. For whom is young Vladimir mistaken?
(a) A Swedish boy.
(b) An American boy.
(c) An English boy.
(d) A German boy.

13. What do the first-class carriages feature?
(a) Live music, leather seats, and large mirrors.
(b) Leather-covered walls, large mirrors, and wide windows.
(c) Servants at every entrance, caviar, and live music.
(d) Leather-covered walls, leather seats, and wide windows.

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

15. After his father's death, to where does Nabokov's widowed mother move?
(a) Prague.
(b) Berlin.
(c) Paris.
(d) London.

Short Answer Questions

1. With what is the aristocratic Nabokov house stocked?

2. Why does Young Vladimir favor the new methods of studying butterflies?

3. This chapter is the first recorded work, published in French in 1936, under the name "Mademoiselle O."

4. What does the butterfly net in particular always invite?

5. To what does Nabokov compare existence?

(see the answer keys)

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