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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which of the following organizations asked Lessing to write a play in the 1950's?
(a) The Shakespeare Theater Company.
(b) The Liverpool Theater Company.
(c) The Royal Theater Company.
(d) The BBC.

2. How many bouts of illness did Lessing's family experience?
(a) Four.
(b) Two.
(c) One.
(d) Three.

3. What did Doris insist on having with her in the photograph for which she posed?
(a) A flower that she picked herself.
(b) A book.
(c) Her teddy bear.
(d) Her cat.

4. How did Lessing's friend make a living in New York to support herself and her daughter?
(a) Modeling.
(b) Prostitution.
(c) Acting.
(d) Writing.

5. Where was John McVeagh born?
(a) England.
(b) Persia.
(c) Rhodesia.
(d) Portugal.

6. Which of the following names does Lessing give the personality that would comes out of her while under the influence of drugs?
(a) The Cynic.
(b) The Recluse.
(c) The Hostess.
(d) The Guide.

7. What did Lessing's parents think of the Whiteheads when they first met them?
(a) That they could betray them at any time.
(b) That they should return to England.
(c) That they were shifty and unsatisfactory.
(d) That they would be useful in developing relationships.

8. According to Lessing, above all, what does history tell us?
(a) That happiness is fleeting.
(b) That circumstances dictate the person.
(c) That nothing is permanent.
(d) That mankind is not peaceful by nature.

9. According to Lessing, what happens to women as time passes?
(a) Women become more significant to a culture's public culture.
(b) Women are dropped from memory, then history.
(c) Women fade into the domestic sphere.
(d) Women assert themselves as powerful people.

10. According to Lessing, where do most of the good biographers live?
(a) Germany.
(b) Britain.
(c) France.
(d) United States of America.

11. What do Lessing's parents do in preparation for their next voyage?
(a) They had their teeth removed.
(b) They saved money scrupulously.
(c) They drew up a legal will.
(d) They studied French.

12. How many adults lived in the Persian house while Lessing was growing up?
(a) Two.
(b) One.
(c) Four.
(d) Three.

13. How was Aunt Betty Cleverly like most women of her generation?
(a) Aunt Betty was committed to Victorian values.
(b) Aunt Betty was unhappily married.
(c) Aunt Betty had decided not to marry.
(d) Aunt Betty's lover was killed in the War.

14. Why did Lessing's father miss the Battle of the Somme?
(a) A dishonorable discharge.
(b) A bad appendix.
(c) An amputated leg.
(d) A case of depression.

15. In Chapter 2, what is one thing that Lessing says the writer must have in order to begin to write about his/her life?
(a) Perspective.
(b) Copious emotional space.
(c) Free time.
(d) Tedious, rhetorical questions.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following was the "chief wrong" that Lessing's mother cited in her diatribe against the Catholic Church?

2. How did Lessing's mother cure Lessing's lice problem?

3. How did the author feel about her childhood?

4. During the 1930's what did Lessing and her brother hear all of the adults discussing?

5. Who stated that children should play in mud?

(see the answer keys)

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