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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 did Lao Tang conclude after being criticized himself?

2. What was Yue Daiyun's job during the famine in Zhaitang?

3. What term was given to those whose parents were landlords?

4. What did Chairman Mao seem to be encouraging in 1956?

5. What does it mean to "draw a line"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Yue Daiyun see in Old Uncle that she had never seen among the intellectuals?

2. Why did Yue Daiyun object to Lao Tang's brother's wife?

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

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

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

6. What was the job of the sent-down cadres in the countryside?

7. What attracted Yue Daiyun to Lao Tang?

8. Why did the famine of 1959 change Yue Daiyun's opinion of the Communist Party?

9. Why did Yue Daiyun decide not to object to being considered a rightist?

10. Why had Yue Daiyun's earlier visit to the Soviet Union been disillusioning?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Landlords were the most vilified of any group described in this story. Why was their condemnation so universal? What happened to them? To their property?

Essay Topic 2

Many times Yue Daiyun decides that her own conscience must be ignored in favor of the Party line of thinking. In your essay, give examples of this decision and its results in her life. What happens when the individual completely subverts his will for what he believes to be the collective good?

Essay Topic 3

Yue Daiyun describes her opinion about Stalin and her feelings at his death. In your essay, compare and contrast her thoughts about him with the opinion of Western civilization. Why is there such a difference?

(see the answer keys)

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