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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. Where was John McVeagh born?

4. What does Lessing say about memory?

5. How long before this book was written did Europeans arrive in Southern Rhodesia?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Describe the English views of themselves and their relation to other people as Lessing portrays it in this chapter.

3. What essential skill did Lessing learn in Chapter 5?

4. How did Lessing become an atheist?

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

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

7. Quoting a recent historian, to what major event does Lessing attribute current feelings of mistrust toward the government?

8. After tracing the history of her parents' lives, what does Lessing ponder?

9. Describe Lessing's father's medical condition in this chapter.

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the way in which Lessing discussed children and childhood in her autobiography. Children appeared throughout the work, as Lessing explored her own childhood, as well as the children who she had with her various partners. How did she present childhood in the text? How did Lessing feel that children should be treated? How did she treat them in her portrayal of them? How did having children affect Lessing's life?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Lessing's views on the role and consequences of violence. How did she define violence? What was her stance regarding violence on the personal or national level? Did her opinion remain consistent in all instances? Or did it vary by circumstance? According to Lessing, were there instances of justified violence or war?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Lessing's perspective on social and political activism. How did Lessing connect theory and praxis? Were the people whom she associated with isolated intellectuals or were they activists for a particular cause? How did Lessing portray activist causes throughout her autobiography? What did she advocate?

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