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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 physical affliction had Yue Daiyun's father-in-law suffered in her two-year absence?

2. What policy sent Yue Daiyun to the countryside in 1965?

3. How were ordinary people to be portrayed in literature considered appropriate during the Four Clean-Ups?

4. What caused the famine in Zhaitang during the autumn of 1959?

5. What song did Yue Daiyun's brother use to comfort her while she was being criticized?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the difference between one who is an "alien class element" and one who is a "counter-revolutionary"?

2. What does it mean to "draw a line" between yourself and another person?

3. What were "middle characters"? Why were they considered unacceptable?

4. How did the newspaper articles during the Four Clean-Ups confuse Yue Daiyun?

5. In 1976, what did the students do to Yue Daiyun's home?

6. How were the landlords treated by the local Communist Party committee?

7. How did the peasants react to the decision to distribute work points evenly, with eight each day for women and ten per day for men?

8. What advice does Lao Wei give Yue Daiyun about survival in the countryside?

9. Why did Yue Daiyun support Party policy above her own conscience?

10. Why did Yue Dainyun feel worse on returning from the countryside in 1966 than she had when returning in 1960?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Several times in this memoir, people were urged to make a confession to things of which they did not believe themselves guilty. In your essay, evaluate the effect of this practice. Why did people make false confessions? What was the benefit? The cost?

Essay Topic 2

Do you believe that Yue Daiyun's basic political philosophy changed greatly during the years she has described in her story? Give reasons, quotations, and examples to support your opinion.

Essay Topic 3

Yue Daiyun had mixed feelings regarding her time spent working with the peasants in the countryside, believing that there were advantages and disadvantages for her and for the students who were required to undertake difficult, dangerous, or menial work. Discuss the benefits and costs of taking her away from her university tasks to make bricks or grind cornmeal.

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