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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

4. 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.

5. Who are Miss Norcott and Miss Hunt?
(a) Two of Vladimir's aunts.
(b) Two of Vladimir's tutors.
(c) Two of Vladimir's girlfriends.
(d) Two of Vladimir's governesses.

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

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

8. What does Nabokov reveal about his mind?
(a) He hallucinates.
(b) He always associates sounds with colors.
(c) He has a great short-term memory.
(d) He has depression.

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

10. Of what descent is Nabokov's mother?
(a) Aristocratic English descent.
(b) Aristocratic Swedish descent.
(c) Aristocratic Norwegian descent.
(d) Aristocratic German descent.

11. How do the aristocrats confront the ocean waves?
(a) By swimming in groups.
(b) On a boat.
(c) By diving in.
(d) With the help of professional bathers.

12. What is the process by which Vladimir Nabokov writes "Speak, Memory?"
(a) The autobiographical novel is culled from Russian history books.
(b) The autobiographical novel is culled from essays written by the author's son.
(c) The autobiographical novel is culled from stories told to him by family members.
(d) The autobiographical novel is culled from essays on his life.

13. 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 laughs at their attempt at deception.
(b) She pretends to not see their poor rewrapping.
(c) She scolds them for trying to deceive her.
(d) She spots their deception and bursts into tears.

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

15. It is unusual for aristocrats in Russian to be hanged, and as a child, what does Nabokov call the trail through the woods on the estate where a previous owner had been hanged?
(a) The "walk of the Hanged One."
(b) The "Road to a Hanging."
(c) The "Path of the Hanged."
(d) The "Hanging Rope."

Short Answer Questions

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

2. To whom does Nabokov feel the strongest bond of kinship?

3. For whom is young Vladimir mistaken?

4. Who accompanies Vladimir and his companion on the beach?

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

(see the answer keys)

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