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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did the doctor prescribe to alleviate Lessing's mother's ailment?
(a) Bed rest.
(b) Penicillin.
(c) Tonic and quinine.
(d) Hydration and exercise.

2. Which of the following illnesses did Lessing's family battle?
(a) Influenza.
(b) Small Pox.
(c) Gout.
(d) Malaria.

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

4. How did Lessing's mother pack differently for her new life in Africa than she did for Persia?
(a) She pared down her possessions before leaving for Africa.
(b) She did nothing differently and packed all of the same items.
(c) She took more extravagant things to Africa.
(d) She packed more food stuffs before leaving for Africa.

5. How did Lessing's mother convey her distaste for Emily McVeagh?
(a) A sniff.
(b) A story about her frivolous ways.
(c) A constant undercurrent in her descriptions of Emily.
(d) A look of disdain in her eyes.

6. Which of the following did Lessing delight in telling the other children at the school?
(a) That a lie was worse than being naughty.
(b) That lying would make their face stick in a horrible position.
(c) That being naughty was much worse than lying.
(d) That being naughty was more fun than behaving.

7. Which of the following does Lessing blame for the distrust that 20th Century people have in their governments?
(a) World War II.
(b) World War I.
(c) Media coverage.
(d) Political corruption.

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

9. What type of animals frequently made their way into the Tayler house?
(a) Cats.
(b) Beetles.
(c) Lizards.
(d) Snakes.

10. What image from the photograph album does Lessing describe?
(a) A trip to the market.
(b) A visit to her father's workplace.
(c) Her first day in the Persian house.
(d) A visit to a swimming bath.

11. According to the quote at the opening of Chapter 1, the girl in Lessing's mother's favorite saying only cared about which of the following?
(a) Singing and prancing.
(b) Horses and dancing.
(c) Cats and flowers.
(d) Books and studying.

12. How many trek oxen hauled the wagon carrying Lessing's family?
(a) 14.
(b) 12.
(c) 18.
(d) 16.

13. To which of the following does Lessing compare writers?
(a) Liars.
(b) Ventriloquists, casting a message from afar.
(c) Archaeologists.
(d) Pegs on which to hang ideas.

14. Which of the following was the "chief wrong" that Lessing's mother cited in her diatribe against the Catholic Church?
(a) Slavery.
(b) The Counter Reformation.
(c) The Inquisition.
(d) Imperialism.

15. Where was Doris Lessing born?
(a) Glasgow, Scotland.
(b) London, England.
(c) Southern Rhodesia.
(d) Kermanshah, Persia.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many acres of land did James Tayler own in 1851?

2. What was the difference between African huts and English huts?

3. In Chapter 8, what does Lessing reference as a common theme throughout her childhood?

4. What did Biddy O'Halloran's skin resemble?

5. What was the name of Lessing's nanny?

(see the answer keys)

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