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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 main thing the old couple grow on the farm?

2. What does Ivan's aunt want him to do?

3. When do the doors sing?

4. What happens as Khoma prays at the witch's coffin?

5. How does Ivan describe his aunt's appearance?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Ivan Fyodorovich like as a student?

2. How does Ivan's aunt surprise when he visits her at the farm?

3. How does this story end?

4. How does Khoma realize the old lady is a witch?

5. Why do the devil and the witch want to cause problems between Valuka and Choub?

6. What bad things do the villagers say the witch did when she was alive?

7. What is the moral of the story?

8. What does Pytor have to do before he marries Pidorka?

9. What is remarkable about Afanasy's house?

10. How does Ivas save Pyotr from a beating?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What does the short story collection express about Gogol's own opinions of life? How has the short stories been organized to communicate a consistent point of view? Are their any other short stories that contradict what Gogol expresses in this collection?

Essay Topic 2

Compare one of the stories characters to the person he was at the beginning of the story to how he is at the end.

1. What did that character hope to achieve at the beginning of the story?

2. What events changes the characters ideas about life?

3. How has that character changed by the end of the story?

Essay Topic 3

Gogol's short stories were hugely influential.

How did Gogol help change short story writing? In what way is his influence still felt today?

(see the answer keys)

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