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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. How many family members went to visit Lessing's house in Persia?
(a) Three.
(b) Four.
(c) Two.
(d) Six.

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

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

5. How did the author feel about her childhood?
(a) Lessing felt as though her childhood had been very sheltered.
(b) Lessing felt as though there had been a grey cloud over her childhood.
(c) Lessing felt as though her parents had neglected her.
(d) Lessing felt as though the entire world was changing while she was a child.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Lessing's mother convey her distaste for Emily McVeagh?

2. According to Lessing, why do authors write so many biographies?

3. What type of animals frequently made their way into the Tayler house?

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

5. What did Lessing refuse to have on her bed at night?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 7, what did Lessing and her brother do in the bush?

2. From the details Lessing provides in Chapter 1, describe the circumstances which led to Maude's broken heart.

3. According to Lessing in Chapter 2, what is the role of truth in autobiographical writing?

4. What did Lessing suspect was the root of her mother's illness?

5. In Chapter 8, how did the girls at the school avoid exams?

6. How does Lessing describe her childhood vulnerability?

7. What advantage does Lessing that claim she has in writing her autobiography late in her life?

8. How did Lessing's mother explain the bout of illness that kept her confined to bed?

9. According to Lessing's memory, how did she learn to interact with people around her?

10. While their mother was bedridden, what did Lessing and her brother do?

(see the answer keys)

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