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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where is Ivanovich told he will need to get a "certificate of non-absence from the city for the summertime" (3)?
(a) From his employer.
(b) From the Bureau of Pleasantrips.
(c) From the police.
(d) From his physician.

2. Who greets Ivanovich at the inn near the lake?
(a) A goose.
(b) A pretty girl.
(c) A puppy.
(d) The innkeeper.

3. How does Ivanovich get to the train on the morning of his departure?
(a) He takes a streetcar.
(b) The narrator drives him.
(c) He walks.
(d) He takes a taxi.

4. When the narrator says that the road "undulated," what is being said of this road (12)?
(a) It curves sharply.
(b) It gently rises and falls.
(c) It abruptly ends.
(d) It varies in width.

5. What does Ivanovich associate with happiness?
(a) His childhood.
(b) Work.
(c) His friends.
(d) Music.

6. What does Ivanovich do when he first sees the view of the lake?
(a) Begins to weep.
(b) Presses his hand to his heart.
(c) Gasps aloud.
(d) Falls to his knees.

7. What is the "unusual expression" of the lake's water (14)?
(a) A cloud reflected in its center.
(b) Waves moving away from the shore instead of towards it.
(c) An oddly red color.
(d) Ripples that seem to follow Ivanovich along the shore.

8. Why does the group make Ivanovich eat a cigarette butt?
(a) He accidentally trips one of the women.
(b) He tries to read his book.
(c) He speaks Russian in his sleep.
(d) He loses a game.

9. What does Ivanovich feel is happening as the first night of the tour wears on?
(a) The other group members are starting to dislike Schramm.
(b) The others are melding together into one collective being.
(c) The group leader is losing power to Schramm.
(d) The others are becoming more tolerant of his eccentricities.

10. What does the narrator say is "dangerous for the soul" (7)?
(a) "The anonymity of all the parts of a landscape."
(b) The "configuration of some entirely insignificant objects."
(c) "A memory of love, disguised as a meadow."
(d) The "charm the world acquires when it is wound up and moving like a merry-go-round."

11. What does the Bureau's song equate with solitude?
(a) Intellect.
(b) Depression.
(c) Independence.
(d) Criminality.

12. What is special about the room at the inn by the lake?
(a) Its decor.
(b) Its view.
(c) Its price.
(d) Its library.

13. What technique is used in the story's title?
(a) Euphemism.
(b) Non Sequitur.
(c) Asyndeton.
(d) Euphony.

14. What technique is used in the phrase "Wispy clouds—greyhounds of heaven" (6)?
(a) Allegory.
(b) Synechdoche.
(c) Metaphor.
(d) Metonymy.

15. Whom does the Bureau's song recommend should be "killed" by a walk in the countryside with "the good, the hearty guys" (9)?
(a) The loner.
(b) The outsider.
(c) The artist.
(d) The hermit.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following describes the group leader accurately?

2. The narrator describes a hill covered with "verdure"; what is this hill covered with?

3. What does Ivanovich do to distract himself from "the absurdity and horror of the situation" (6)?

4. What description does the narrator give of the train car on page 5?

5. After dinner, what do the other tour members insist that Ivanovich do?

(see the answer keys)

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