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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How old was Lessing when she wrote "The Treasure Trunk"?
(a) 12.
(b) 10.
(c) 19.
(d) 13.

2. In Chapter 8, what does Lessing reference as a common theme throughout her childhood?
(a) Adventures.
(b) Trees.
(c) Dreams.
(d) Fires.

3. According to Lessing, why do authors write so many biographies?
(a) Biographies are simpler to write than fiction.
(b) Biographies are based on fact.
(c) Novels require more of the author's soul.
(d) Biographies sell well.

4. Growing up, what was Lessing always told about the family's financial status?
(a) That the family was financially stable, but morally corrupt.
(b) That the family would be fine when her father settled in his new job.
(c) That the family was middle-class.
(d) That the family was poor.

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

6. After returning to England, where did Lessing's family settle?
(a) In Bloomsbury.
(b) In Southern Rhodesia.
(c) In Persia.
(d) In the East End.

7. What year did Lessing leave Southern Rhodesia?
(a) 1919.
(b) 1934.
(c) 1945.
(d) 1949.

8. What type of play did Lessing write while at the Convent?
(a) A one-act Shakespearean play.
(b) A Ciceronian tragedy.
(c) An English tragedy.
(d) An Aristophanean comedy.

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

10. How did Lessing's mother cure Lessing's lice problem?
(a) By washing her hair with scalding hot water.
(b) With expensive shampoo.
(c) By shaving her head.
(d) With paraffin.

11. In Chapter 3, which of the following does Lessing describe as her first memory?
(a) An image of the farm in Southern Rhodesia.
(b) Her father returning from war.
(c) Her father, towering above her on a horse.
(d) An image of the great house in Persia.

12. In which book did Lessing write about Mr. Whitehead?
(a) In Pursuit of the English.
(b) In African Laughter.
(c) In Going Home.
(d) In Time Bites.

13. What did Biddy O'Halloran's skin resemble?
(a) Bronze.
(b) Olives.
(c) Red jelly and cream.
(d) Peaches and cream.

14. Why did Lessing learn to drive?
(a) Lessing learned to drive because of her father's awkward leg.
(b) Lessing learned to drive because she wanted to work in town.
(c) Lessing learned to drive to displease her mother.
(d) Lessing learned to drive because she wanted independence.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following organizations asked Lessing to write a play in the 1950's?

2. What image from the photograph album does Lessing describe?

3. According to Lessing, above all, what does history tell us?

4. How was Aunt Betty Cleverly like most women of her generation?

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

(see the answer keys)

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