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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Nabokov open his autobiography?
(a) With a short story about the birth of his son.
(b) With a short review of Russian history.
(c) With an examination of his early childhood.
(d) With a short meditation on the periods of inexistence before birth and after death.

2. What does the butterfly net in particular always invite?
(a) Exciting questions.
(b) Curious visitors.
(c) Intriguing discussions.
(d) Awkward comments.

3. Who occupies one of the estates near St. Petersburg when not abroad?
(a) Nabokov's cousin, Yuri.
(b) Nabokov's father, Dmitri.
(c) Vyra, Nabokov's wife.
(d) Nabokov's uncle, Vasiliy Ivanovich.

4. Who are some of the ancestors on Nabokov's paternal, Russian side?
(a) A lawyer, scientist, and Dmitri Nabokov, a well-known actor.
(b) A government leader, an opera singer, and Dmitri Nabokov, the surgeon.
(c) An explorer, the sister of a prominent Decembrist, and Dmitri Nabokov, the author's grandfather, who served as Minister of Justice for eight years.
(d) A prominent Caholic cardinal, a physician, and Dmitri Nabokov, an inventor.

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

6. To whom is Chapter Five devoted?
(a) Nabokov's mother.
(b) Nabokov's governess.
(c) Nabokov's father.
(d) Nabokov's wife.

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

8. When does Nabokov eventually discover a new species?
(a) Not until he is an old man, living in exile in the United States.
(b) In Germany visiting his family.
(c) At Cambridge.
(d) As a small boy in Russia.

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

10. What would change throughout Nabokov's childhood, depending on the prevailing advice of the family's current medical consultant?
(a) The medicines his mother uses.
(b) The temperature in his home.
(c) How much he exercises.
(d) The temperature of the bath water.

11. Why does Vasiliy insist upon lying supine on the floor?
(a) He claims it stretches out his spine.
(b) He claims it relieves his chest pains.
(c) He claims it improves his posture.
(d) He claims it helps him breathe better.

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

13. Why is he detained briefly in 1918, by a Bolshevik soldier?
(a) He is trying to escape the country.
(b) He has run away from the Red Army.
(c) He is accused him of signaling British warships with his net.
(d) He is evading the draft.

14. 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.

15. What is their mother's reaction when she sees that her children have opened the presents from their stockings early and poorly rewrapped them?
(a) She spots their deception and bursts into tears.
(b) She pretends to not see their poor rewrapping.
(c) She scolds them for trying to deceive her.
(d) She laughs at their attempt at deception.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is memorable about this first memory?

2. Where do the children bathe?

3. What is one of his other memories?

4. What does Nabokov reveal about his mind?

5. How many years does Mademoiselle spend with the family?

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