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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is publication like outside of Russia?
(a) Better than in the United States.
(b) A well-paying, satisfying career.
(c) Often insufficiently lucrative to provide a comfortable existence.
(d) Not as good as in Russia.

2. What does Vladimir study at St. Petersburg University?
(a) Art.
(b) Medicine.
(c) Music.
(d) Law.

3. What is happening in the larger cities of Western Europe?
(a) They are unhappy about the number of Russians.
(b) Russian writers and artists have a considerable presence.
(c) They are losing Russian immigrants.
(d) They are not allowing Russians to immigrate to their countries.

4. What country does the family travel through on their way to London?
(a) Greece.
(b) Belgium.
(c) France.
(d) Italy.

5. What does Nabokov remember about his father's remarkable writing ability?
(a) He could write sentence after sentence without correction.
(b) He has beautiful handwriting.
(c) He could spell any word.
(d) He is very poetic.

6. What does young Nabokov's status as a child of the intelligentsia often do to him?
(a) It encourages him to make friends.
(b) It makes him stand out in a crowd.
(c) He receives many compliments.
(d) It isolates him from his fellow students

7. What does Sergey do during WWII?
(a) He builds weaponry.
(b) He emigrates to the United States and joins the Army.
(c) He is an SS soldier.
(d) He is employed as a translator in Berlin.

8. What is a crippling experience for him?
(a) Speaking English.
(b) Writing poetry in Russian.
(c) Falling off a horse.
(d) Contracting polio.

9. What fills Nabokov with surprise, while roller-skating?
(a) An older American girl comments on his excellent skating.
(b) His mother skates very well.
(c) Colette is also roller-skating.
(d) He is not very good.

10. How does Lett punish the boys?
(a) By telling their parents.
(b) By having them sit facing a corner.
(c) By forcing them to spar with him in the boxing ring.
(d) By giving them chores to do.

11. What is Nabokov called in exile?
(a) A ymigry.
(b) An immigrant.
(c) A dirty Russian.
(d) A white Russian.

12. The boredom of the audience at these poetry performances is obvious to everyone but whom?
(a) Max.
(b) Dmitri.
(c) Lenski.
(d) Nabokov.

13. Who rents a modest summer cottage called a dachka?
(a) Nabokov's uncle.
(b) The Nabokov family.
(c) Colette parents.
(d) Tamara's parents.

14. In 1904, who does Nabokov remember meeting for the first time?
(a) His cousin.
(b) His uncle.
(c) His sister.
(d) His youngest brother.

15. What puts Nabokov at odds with many of his colleagues?
(a) His inability to speak English.
(b) His opinions of the state of affairs in his home country.
(c) His desire to emigrate to the United States.
(d) His Russian accent.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does Nabokov marry?

2. In 1914, a sixteen-year-old Yuri visits the Nabokovs,and what does he produce?

3. What does the headstrong Yuri in later life introduce to Nabokov?

4. Why does she hand him a hand mirror?

5. Other than his wife, what does Nabokov claim about his good friends?

(see the answer keys)

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