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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Mr. Cummings influence Nabokov's scientific drawings of butterflies?
(a) He is Nabokov's butterfly instructor.
(b) He is Nabokov's botanist.
(c) He is Nabokov's science instructor.
(d) He is Nabokov's drawing instructor.

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

3. What game does the whole family often play on the estate?
(a) Lawn tennis.
(b) Badmitton.
(c) Rounders.
(d) Lawn bowling.

4. Who accompanies Vladimir and his companion on the beach?
(a) His cousiin, Yuri.
(b) A fox terrier.
(c) The girl's little brother.
(d) A cocker spaniel.

5. Soon, the string of nurses transforms into what?
(a) A string of governesses.
(b) A string of teachers.
(c) A string of surgeons.
(d) A string of doctors.

6. What does this thriving upper-class tourist industry offer?
(a) Live performances, pubs and restaurants, and bicycles to rent.
(b) Gambling, live theatre, and music.
(c) Expensive restaurants, street vendors, and swimming lessons.
(d) Vendors lining the beach and even servants in the change huts to assist in the removal of bathing suits.

7. Though many doubt this ailment, What happens to Ivanovich?
(a) He ends up with scoliosis.
(b) He dies of a heart ailment.
(c) He slips a disc.
(d) He dies from lung cancer.

8. 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 father's paternal grandfather, Nikolay Illarionovich Kozlov.
(d) His mother's maternal grandfather, Nikolay Illarionovich Kozlov.

9. 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 is afraid of monsters under his bed.
(d) He seems to lose himself in the pitch black.

10. When do they arrive in Paris?
(a) Late afternoon.
(b) Early morning.
(c) Early afternoon.
(d) In the middle of the night.

11. With what is the aristocratic Nabokov house stocked?
(a) French literature.
(b) English and French amenities.
(c) German beer.
(d) Russian antiques.

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

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

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

15. 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 of the bath water.
(c) How much he exercises.
(d) The temperature in his home.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why is Nabokov disappointed to hear that one of his tutors marries a peasant girl?

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

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

4. During one such trip in the summer of 1909, who does young Nabokov meet?

5. Who are some of the ancestors on Nabokov's paternal, Russian side?

(see the answer keys)

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