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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 carpenters were allowed to be retained in "Magic"?

2. What was Romanov's real occupation? ("The Lawyers' Plot.")

3. What color armbands did the military patrol wear at the train station? ("The Train.")

4. What provided unexpected joy for the narrator in "The Lawyers' Plot"?

5. Why did Golubev's boss like him? ("Magic.")

Short Essay Questions

1. Where did the narrator hide his money during his train ride? ("The Train.")

2. What bliss did the narrator find while in Irkutsk? ("The Train.")

3. In "A Child's Drawing," why did the convicts stand in groups of five when guards were dividing out work assignments?

4. What happened at the end of "Esperanto" to the narrator"?

5. What did convicts receive as payment for keeping their mouths shut about guards beating them? ("The Chief of Political Control.")

6. Why did Gusev break the window in the basement of the former monastery? ("My First Tooth.")

7. What about the Senior Supervisor-Ministry of Internal Affairs' name impressed the narrator in "The Lawyer's Plot"?

8. What game did the lieutenant and the narrator play during "The Train"?

9. Why did Praga, in "Esperanto," hack his clothing to rags?

10. How did the narrator describe Romanov in "The Lawyer's Plot"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The author learned many different things during his time spent in Kolyma. Choose two different lessons that the author learned and discuss why these were important. What was the lesson? How was the lesson learned? How did this affect the life of the author after the experience?

Essay Topic 2

In "Quiet," an particular irony was set up. One of the camp administrators believed that "a man will eat and in gratitude work better for the state." In what circumstances did this statement prove to be false? In what circumstances did this statement prove to be true? What was the determining factor in the truth behind the statement?

Essay Topic 3

Magic seemed to be the only way that some men made it out of the camps of Kolyma alive. Discuss three examples throughout the text where "magic" seemed to be responsible for survival. (Think of how "magic" was depicted in the story "Magic" to help answer this question.)

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