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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why did Lessing's mother rush from the farm to her home?
(a) Lessing's mother needed to inform her of her father's condition/
(b) Lessing's mother wanted to end her marriage to Frank.
(c) Lessing's mother had heard rumors of an impending divorce.
(d) Lessing's mother wanted to warn her about having too many children too close together.

2. Why did Lessing remain on the farm when her father was taken to the hospital in Salisbury?
(a) Lessing's brother, Harry needed to be watched.
(b) There was an incubator of eggs that were waiting to hatch.
(c) Lessing had fought with her mother earlier that day.
(d) Lessing did not want to accompany her parents.

3. Who is the hero of Fathers and Sons, the book Lessing cites in this chapter?
(a) Karamazov.
(b) Turgenev.
(c) Bazarov.
(d) Borislov.

4. What was the black population of Salisbury?
(a) 1,000.
(b) 100,000.
(c) 10,000.
(d) 1,000,000.

5. What skills did Lessing teach herself during that year?
(a) Speed typing and shorthand.
(b) Cooking and cleaning.
(c) Reading and writing.
(d) Sewing and darning.

6. What book does Lessing cite in her discussion of the Russian front?
(a) All Quiet on the Western Front.
(b) The Forgotten Soldier.
(c) The Real Thing.
(d) Darkness at Noon.

7. Who vouched for Gottfried Lessing to get him out of jail?
(a) Frank Wisdom.
(b) Howe-Ely.
(c) Doris Lessing.
(d) Margaret Morgan.

8. What historical event happened just before the birth of Lessing's daughter?
(a) The Atlantic Charter.
(b) The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
(c) The outbreak of WWII.
(d) The detente.

9. What type of culture existed in Southern Rhodesia?
(a) A racially-integrated culture.
(b) A drinking culture.
(c) A smoking culture.
(d) A sexually permissive culture.

10. In Chapter 16, which part of Esther and Kurt's house was exclusively Esther's?
(a) The laundry room.
(b) The kitchen.
(c) The sewing room.
(d) The garden.

11. How does Lessing describe their sex life?
(a) Exciting.
(b) Spirited.
(c) Sad.
(d) Strained.

12. What affliction struck all members of Lessing's family except her?
(a) Blindness.
(b) Cholera.
(c) Deafness.
(d) Malaria.

13. What did all the women assume about Lessing's marriage to Frank?
(a) That they fought constantly.
(b) That they had married too soon.
(c) That they did not love each other.
(d) That their sex life was a failure.

14. What were young women specifically cautioned against in London during that period?
(a) The risk of not appearing to be marriage material.
(b) Showing too much knowledge about politics.
(c) The White Slave Trade.
(d) The wicked intentions of teenage boys.

15. Where did Frank and Lessing go on their honeymoon?
(a) Capetown.
(b) Beira.
(c) Umtali.
(d) London.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the highest ambition of Black workers in Salisbury?

2. In Chapter 12, what did Lessing do to calm down John?

3. Why did Lessing begin to eat less during meals?

4. What did Lessing do while she spent her days with John?

5. Which of the following was NOT a language commonly spoken in the Lessing home?

(see the answer keys)

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