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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

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

5. 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) Not very many butterflies, because most Russian varieties are extinct.
(b) He cannot find nearly as many butterflies as he thought he would.
(c) He is constantly finding new species.
(d) He cannot remember the outdoors without them.

Short Answer Questions

1. What game does the whole family often play on the estate?

2. What does Nabokov investigate about his family?

3. What mystifies the two boys about Mademoiselle?

4. At the time the family moves, where are Nabokov and his brother?

5. 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?

Short Essay Questions

1. What memory leads to an important memory about his father?

2. Explain the process used to create this book.

3. What jobs does Nabokov's father hold throughout his career?

4. What evidence from the text shows that Nabokov is beginning to have an interest in girls?

5. In 1910, the Nabokov brothers acquire teeth braces. How does their father reward them for dealing with the dental sessions?

6. The local schoolmaster is brought in to give the children a crash course in the Russian language. What takes place at a meeting between the father, son, and schoolmaster?

7. Why does Nabokov have trouble sleeping?

8. What evidence is there showing that Nabokov and Tamara's relationship is not as innocent as his parents may think it is.

9. Why is Nabokov angry with the Bolsheviks? What is the cause of this anger?

10. What does he learn about himself, regarding Russian poets?

(see the answer keys)

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