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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. What does Christine fear if Claude escorts her to the station?
(a) looking like a country hick.
(b) being seen with a man early in the morning.
(c) that he will try to take advantage of her.
(d) that he will ask to see her again.

2. What does Christine do the morning after she and Claude consummate their love?
(a) she returns to Passy and resigns her position.
(b) she goes to confession.
(c) she sends a letter to her employer that she is ill.
(d) she lies to her employer that she has a friend coming to Paris.

3. How does Zola paint Claude Lantier's angst?
(a) by his desire to protect his paintings.
(b) by his partying when he should be working.
(c) by his mood swings over his painting.
(d) by his obsession with time.

4. Why was Mahoudeau sent to Paris from Plassans?
(a) he won a sculpture contest.
(b) he was to become an architect.
(c) he was courting the mayor's daughter.
(d) he lost a bet.

5. Where does Claude go for a cheap lunch?
(a) a third rate wine-shop.
(b) the Fruit and Vegetable Shop.
(c) Pierre's house.
(d) a hotdog stand.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who do Claude, Pierre, and Jory find sitting at a table making sketches with drops of beer?

2. What is Bongrand's lament about art dealers?

3. How long does Christine stay away after her first return visit to Claude's studio?

4. Who is the former shepherd from near Plassans whose patron sent him to Paris?

5. Who now has a mansion near Claude's and Christine's cottage?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Christine and Claude react differently to tragedy?

2. How has Fagerolles become swallowed up by the commercial world of art?

3. Why is Claude told not to bring Christine to the Thursday night gatherings?

4. How does Zola show the domestic side of Christine?

5. How does Zola's novel parallel the realism that Sandoz believes novels should portray?

6. How does the reader know that Christine has been thinking of Claude since the night she spent in his studio?

7. What is the physical evidence that Dubuche has already deserted to the enemy?

8. Describe the irony when Christine finally agrees to walk with Claude in public.

9. How do praise and laughter demonstrate Claude's personal insecurities at the Salon des Refusés?

10. Aside from the poverty of Claude's studio, how does the reader come to understand how poor Claude actually is?

(see the answer keys)

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