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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. What did Merzlakov pretend was hurt so that he would not have to return to work?

2. What did the narrator refuse to give up at the end of "Prosthetic Appliances"?

3. For Potashnikov, how long did his breakfast sustain his work? ("Carpenters.")

4. What work gang was never worried about in regard to running away? ("Major Pugachov's Last Battle.")

5. Which of the following instruments were allowed to be used by political prisoners when under the watch of the worst camp heads?

Short Essay Questions

1. What hypothesis was tested in the story "Quiet"?

2. What did the narrator in "A Pushover Job" and his companion do to full-fill their quota of pine needles?

3. What materials were needed to make the playing cards that the men in "On Tick" used?

4. What notations did the guards, described in "Prosthetic Appliances", use to show that a convict would not receive hot food and/or bread?

5. Who did Gloubev recognize in the hospital as he was recovering from his appendectomy? ("A Piece of Meat.")

6. What happened to Grigoriev and Potashnikov after the foreman found out that they were not carpenters?

7. In "Sententious," who did the narrator say that he envied?

8. What did Savelev do after finding Ivanovich hung himself?

9. In "The Bathhouse," why was lice a relative concept to most convicts?

10. What did the narrator say about death in "Sententious"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The harshness of work in the camps was described through the severe actions that convicts would go to to avoid it. Describe three examples where convicts sacrificed themselves, in one way or another, to avoid work in the camps.

Essay Topic 2

Many of the guards in the stories are described by their attitudes towards the camp convicts. Describe the different ways that guards were described, how these descriptions mandated how convicts felt about the guards, and how the convicts acted around different guards based upon their dispositions.

Essay Topic 3

Objects from the civilian world held great value for the men of Kolyma. Discuss three objects from the civilized world, what was done to keep the object in the possession of the owner, why the owner lost the possession, and how the owner felt about their possession.

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