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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the root of poverty in Anya's family?

2. What does Ivan Gromov suffer from?

3. What is Ivan Cherviakov watching when he sneezes on the man in front of him?

4. What is Grigoriev's punishment?

5. What does Katya suggest to Stepanych?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Cherviakov so insistent on apologizing to the General?

2. How does Grigoriev react to his punishment?

3. What changes are observed in Nikolai Stepanych's lectures from the past to the present?

4. Why does Katya leave to the Caucasus?

5. When a fellow soldier asks Gusev if he is not afraid to die, what is his response? How does his response reflect his character?

6. Describe Anya's character and how it changes from the beginning of "Anna on the Neck" to the end.

7. What does Ivan Velikopolsky in "The Student" see in the present that reminds him of the past? How does he connect the two?

8. How does Ieronym invite the narrator of "Easter Night" to ask about Ieronym's sorrows? How does he hint at his current sorrow?

9. As Gusev drifts in and out of sleep, what thoughts interchange in his dreams?

10. Why doesn't Grigoriev believe the magistrate when he says taking nuts will derail the train?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The only thing Varka in "Sleepy" wants is sleep. Eventually she gets it by killing the baby that cries. Anton Chekhov writes, "and a moment later [Varka] is already fast asleep, like the dead..." Why does Chekhov write an ellipsis at the end of Varka's story? What is the reader led to believe?

Essay Topic 2

Based on Chekhov's stories, write about what his philosophy might be.

Essay Topic 3

The main character in "Easter Night" reminds Ieronym, a monk, how all people die, and how his friend Nikolai, another monk, is lucky to die on the eve of Easter. Although Ieronym is trained as a monk, how do his reasoning and his heart play contrasting roles as he grieves over Nikolai.

(see the answer keys)

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