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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. How long has it been since Bishop Pyotr last saw his mother?

2. How does the coroner witness the disrespect the beadle gets?

3. How does the bishop feel when he sees his mother?

4. What are the people's reaction to the Zemstvo killing?

5. What races through the bishop's head when his colleagues confirm his mother's appearance?

Short Essay Questions

1. How are the homes of Lida and the artist, from "The House with the Mezzanine", symbolic of their respective personalities?

2. In "The Bishop", what is Bishops Pyotr's relationship with his mother Marya like when she visits him after nine years?

3. Dr. Starchenko from "On Official Business" mentions old folks disliking this "nervous age." What might this "nervous age" refer to?

4. What is the root cause of Liza's illness?

5. How does Katya show how she feels about Pyotr's status as a bishop?

6. In "At Christmastime", Vasilisa writes a letter to her daughter after four years of not seeing her. Why does Vasilisa take such care in her choice of words?

7. Why does Alekhin and Burkin not enjoy Ivan Ivanych's story about gooseberries?

8. What is going through Anisim's head as he is getting married? What might this foreshadow in his life?

9. In "The Lady with the Little Dog", how does Dmitri Dmitrich Gurov view women?

10. What is the Tsybukins' reaction to Nikifor's death?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare how the soldiers and the sailor on the boat in "Gusev" handle a long boat ride back home to Russia. How do they each deal with long days without enough food and water, entertainment, and occupation? What does each resort do in order to try to keep their sanity?

Essay Topic 2

From "A Boring Story", Stepanych begins to realize that he is aging and changing, but he holds hope. What is Stepanych in hopes of and why?

Essay Topic 3

Everyone in Chekhov's stories is looking for some form of happiness or contentment. For each it is something different. Write an essay about what makes people happy and how much are they willing to give up to reach that happiness? How does one promote happiness in their lives and how do some inhibit their search for happiness?

(see the answer keys)

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