View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is one thing he recalls suddenly becoming aware of while creating a poem?
(a) He's standing in the rain.
(b) His mother is removing a plate of untouched food from in front of him.
(c) He has forgotten part of the poem.
(d) His father is speaking to him.

2. What makes becoming a Russian novelist an uphill battle for Nabokov at Cambridge?
(a) He does not know of very many Russian writers.
(b) He does not speak Russian very well.
(c) He is not a great writer.
(d) The pull toward Western literature is strong.

3. Why is Nabokov's tutor rebuked by his mother?
(a) He is repeatedly late.
(b) He is not doing an adequate job.
(c) He is being rude to her children.
(d) He spies on the young couple.

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

5. What does he do with a poem before he writes it down?
(a) He discusses his ideas with his father.
(b) He writes it on a chalkboard.
(c) He contructs it entirely in his head.
(d) He reads the poem to his mother.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who dies young of a heart ailment?

2. His other brother, Sergey, is only a year younger than Nabokov. The two are raised together, but what makes them different?

3. What casts a cloud over the exiled Russian intelligentsia?

4. What is the last Nabokov hears of Lenski?

5. Who is their first spelling tutor?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 319 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample