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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. As Beta scornfully realized, how could someone have power in Poland?
(a) Destroy all Polish underground resistance.
(b) Seize it by force.
(c) Overcome the Nazis.
(d) Follow the procedures established by the Polish government.

2. Catholic Communists gradually lose everything except what aspect?
(a) The language of religion.
(b) A basic belief in God.
(c) Their trust in the Virgin Mary.
(d) Their sense of guilt.

3. Why was Gamma's writing weak?
(a) Human emotion.
(b) Previous success.
(c) Empathy.
(d) Proper doctrine.

4. Chapter 6 opens with a picture of Vilna, which is a city of __________ .
(a) Beaches.
(b) Gardens.
(c) Streams.
(d) Forests.

5. How much time did Beta spend in the concentration camp Auschwitz?
(a) The rest of his life.
(b) Two years.
(c) Three years.
(d) Two months.

Short Answer Questions

1. Beta remained bitter because he was unable to see what?

2. As he got older, how did Gamma feel about his life?

3. How was Delta's cheerful poetry treated?

4. When he spent time in Moscow, what kinds of reports did Delta send back?

5. As Milosz witnessed, why was becoming a communist a difficult decision?

Short Essay Questions

1. Milosz writes that Delta could not (or would not) distinguish between truth and fable, even in his personal life. Is this the kind of mind the Party would have wanted?

2. How are the peasants, in several ways, the most helpless class of people?

3. In Chapter VIII, Milosz takes on the tone of a communist to describe the evils of the various classes. How is this more powerful than a mere description?

4. Beta saw life only in terms of society rather than in terms of individual man. How was this his downfall?

5. How was Delta able to play the game that the center demanded of him--and be better at it?

6. Delta, in wandering the roads in France, met people from many different nations. How did this universal migration prepare the way even more for communist rule?

7. Why does Milosz go to such pains to describe Gamma, when the other writers found in his book are given only a few sentences of description?

8. How does the party's definition of a reactionary reduce him to a comic level?

9. Milosz opens Chapter VI with a description of Vilna as it existed during his childhood. Is this simply to introduce Gamma or is there another reason?

10. Rather than blaming these four men for the choices they made, Milosz says they were slaves to history. How is this true?

(see the answer keys)

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