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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. Ivan Ilych's chief concern is to what?
(a) To be well enough to attend the party that evening.
(b) To get his wife to listen to him.
(c) To continue working at his new job.
(d) To follow doctor's orders exactly.

2. Why are his wife and daughter anxious when Ivan Ilych arrives home?
(a) They are anxious to hear what the doctor had to say.
(b) They are anxious to get the house clean for the party that night.
(c) They are anxious to go out.
(d) They are anxious because Ivan had been gone so long.

3. When Peter Ivanovich encounters Ivan Ilych's daughter and fiance, how to they look?
(a) Angry.
(b) Inconvienenced.
(c) Ready to cry.
(d) Happy together.

4. Why doesn't Ivan Ilych change his life?
(a) He has no imagination for creating another life.
(b) He doesn't have enough money to change it the way he wants it.
(c) His wife won't let him change it.
(d) He likes his life as it is.

5. What does Ivan Ilych hear down the hall?
(a) Footsteps.
(b) An intruder.
(c) His family visiting with his brother-in-law.
(d) His family getting the house ready for the party that night.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did the sight of Ivan Ilych seem to convey to Peter Ivanovich?

2. After offering his condolences, what does Peter Ivanovich tell Praskovya Fedorovna?

3. Why is this year the hardest year of Ivan Ilych?

4. How does Ivan Ilych's wife behave toward his illness?

5. What are the symptoms that Ivan Ilych has?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Ivan respond to not getting the promotion and why?

2. What is ironic about the opening of Chapter 3 when it states that 1880 is "the hardest year of Ivan's life?"

3. What is the setting of Chapter 1?

4. Is the author's definition of the "good life" the same as that of Ivan and his wife? Support your answer.

5. When could Ivan have changed his idea of the "good life" in Chapter 4?

6. Describe the relationship between Ivan and his wife.

7. Discuss the irony in Ivan resenting his dying from something so trivial as falling off the step ladder.

8. How is it possible that Ivan hasn't seen how thin and yellow he looks until his brother-in-law arrives?

9. Examine the irony in Chapter 8.

10. Describe how Ivan's condition is affecting him in Chapter 7.

(see the answer keys)

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