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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Mademoiselle threatens several times to leave. Why does she end up staying?
(a) Nabokov's mother threatens her.
(b) Nabokov's mother gives her gifts.
(c) Nabokov's mother talks her into staying
(d) Nabokov's mother gives her a raise.

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

3. Why is Nabokov disappointed to hear that one of his tutors marries a peasant girl?
(a) He thinks of his tutors as people devoted to their art or profession.
(b) He thinks he should have married someone in a higher social class.
(c) He thinks he should have married his aunt.
(d) He thinks he should have married one of his sisters.

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

5. 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) Gambling, live theatre, and music.
(d) Live performances, pubs and restaurants, and bicycles to rent.

6. What is a battle against the yawning darkness?
(a) Prayer.
(b) Love.
(c) Autobiography.
(d) Religion.

7. At the time the family moves, where are Nabokov and his brother?
(a) In the University of Paris.
(b) In New York University.
(c) In Cambridge.
(d) In Oxford.

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

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

10. In any of the memories he has from before his obsession began, Nabokov cannot recall the presence of butterflies. What can he recall afterward?
(a) He cannot remember the outdoors without them.
(b) He is constantly finding new species.
(c) He cannot find nearly as many butterflies as he thought he would.
(d) Not very many butterflies, because most Russian varieties are extinct.

11. What is memorable about this first memory?
(a) He understands that he is a separate being from his father and mother.
(b) He realizes he has the ability to control his own body.
(c) He understands that everyone must eat.
(d) He wonders where his parents are.

12. 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) As a small boy in Russia.
(d) At Cambridge.

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

14. When does Nabokov see Mademoiselle again after she is no longer in their household?
(a) In London while Nabokov is at Cambridge.
(b) In Paris right before the war.
(c) In New York after the family emigrates to the U.S.
(d) In Lausanne after the war.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How do the aristocrats confront the ocean waves?

2. Of what are Nabokov's memories in a Russian setting?

3. Why is he detained briefly in 1918, by a Bolshevik soldier?

4. What mystifies the two boys about Mademoiselle?

5. Though many doubt this ailment, What happens to Ivanovich?

(see the answer keys)

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