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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why does Ginzburg hide the fact that she is ill?
(a) She is afraid she'll be executed.
(b) She does not want to be separated from her friends.
(c) She is afraid of the incompetence of the physicians.
(d) She is not ill.

2. To what does Ginzburg attribute her inability to distinguish one day from the next in the following year?
(a) The depressing atmosphere.
(b) Her instinct to survive.
(c) The lack of clean air and being ill.
(d) Her state of mind.

3. What are the prisoners told to do before being transferred?
(a) To leave all their possessions behind in their cells.
(b) To submit to a lice examination.
(c) To wash and pair off.
(d) To write and let their families know they are being transferred.

4. What do the women become proficient at during the day?
(a) Communicating with other prisoners.
(b) Maximizing their exercise time.
(c) Convincing the guards to give them more priviledges.
(d) Sleeping in a sitting position.

5. What is Ginzburg's prison cell number at Yaroslavl?
(a) Fifteen.
(b) One.
(c) Three.
(d) Twenty-one.

6. What is crawling with insects?
(a) The slop pails.
(b) Bad sugar Ginzburg bought from the prison commissary.
(c) The halls and cells.
(d) The underground cell.

7. What happens that brightens the prisoners' lives?
(a) They are allowed weekly visitors.
(b) They receive reductions in their sentences for good behavior.
(c) They are allowed monthly visitors.
(d) The library is reopened.

8. With what are Ginzburg and Julia becoming disillusioned?
(a) The Soviet system.
(b) The prospect of better conditions in the prison.
(c) The prospects of an early release.
(d) The prospect of vindication.

9. What can Ginzburg not believe in reflecting upon what has happened to herself and others?
(a) More people didn't die in the terrible conditions.
(b) She meets so many people who went through the same things she did.
(c) She survived the horrors.
(d) It really could happen.

10. Whom does Ginzburg have in mind as she is writing her memoirs?
(a) Her mother.
(b) Her husband.
(c) Her granddaughter.
(d) Her grandson.

11. What do most of the women receive for sentences?
(a) 5-8 years.
(b) 1-4 years.
(c) 10-15 years.
(d) 20-30 years.

12. Who is Pickwick?
(a) The new prison Governor.
(b) The doctor who treats Julia and Ginzburg.
(c) A new prisoner.
(d) A kind, elderly guard.

13. Who does Ginzburg believe are dying off or being killed?
(a) Most of the original Party founders.
(b) Older, decent people.
(c) All her friends.
(d) Most of the men and women who have college degrees.

14. What does Ginzburg think they are doing that is causing the screaming?
(a) She has no idea.
(b) Getting ready to execute a prisoner.
(c) Forcing a prisoner to eat.
(d) Hosing a prisoner down with freezing water.

15. What does Ginzburg hear in the hall as her visitor leaves?
(a) Singing.
(b) Gunshots.
(c) Screaming.
(d) Arguing.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where is Ginzburg sent to work?

2. What is interesting about the prison library?

3. Who is Zinaida Tulub?

4. What is Elgen like compared to Kolyma?

5. Why are Ginzburg and the others put in punishment cells?

(see the answer keys)

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