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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Nafisi teach during her first semester as a professor at the University of Tehran?
(a) A large seminar using banned books.
(b) A small study group related to the works of Nabokov.
(c) Classes in English as a Second Language.
(d) A large seminar called Research.

2. In Part 3, Chapter 6, why does Nafisi join a group?
(a) To learn more about the principles of Islam.
(b) To teach classic works of English literature.
(c) To read and study classic works of English literature.
(d) To read and study classical Persian literature.

3. Who is Hojatol-Islam Ali Khamenei?
(a) The president of the university.
(b) The magician.
(c) One of Nafisi's students.
(d) The successor to Ayatollah Khomeini.

4. What does Mr. Forsati want to do?
(a) Write a novel about life in Iran.
(b) Work as an official in the Iranian regime.
(c) Start a company related to videos and films.
(d) Marry one of Nafisi's students.

5. Why does Nafisi form a friendship with Jeff?
(a) Because her relationship with her husband is strained, and she is lonely.
(b) They both enjoy having a friend who speaks English and has memories of America.
(c) They are both actively demonstrating against the Iranian government.
(d) Jeff is one of her best students, and they enjoy discussing literature together.

6. Who is Dr. Shahpour Bakhtiar?
(a) One of Nafisi's students.
(b) A nationalist leader who became prime minister in 1979.
(c) Nafisi's colleague at the University of Tehran.
(d) An Iranian intellectual who escaped to Iraq to avoid jail.

7. What does Nafisi do with help from Mr. Forsati?
(a) Organize a series of lectures by prominent European authors.
(b) Create a series of photographs that capture life in Tehran.
(c) Form a study group with male students.
(d) Organize a series of cultural programs for the university.

8. In Part 3, Chapter 9, what author does Nafisi discuss with the magician?
(a) Nabokov.
(b) Shakespeare.
(c) Twain.
(d) Hammett.

9. Who are the Mujahedeen?
(a) The members of a radical student organization at the University of Tehran.
(b) The leaders of the University of Tehran.
(c) A group called the Party of Allah.
(d) A radical religious organization that claims to be the spiritual and political heir of the deceased Ayatollah Taleghani.

10. To what does Manna compare her fictional self?
(a) A strong tree.
(b) A steady green light.
(c) A Rodin statue.
(d) A beautiful memory.

11. How does Nafisi describe the Iranian perception of America?
(a) As encouraging, signalling their renewed interest in Western thought.
(b) As mythical, combining elements of Satan and Paradise Lost.
(c) As sad, forcing her to change her way of thinking.
(d) As realistic, exposing the immorality of Western culture.

12. What happens to Iranian writers and publishers during the mid-nineties?
(a) They are only allowed to write in Persian.
(b) They are interrogated, expelled, and sometimes killed.
(c) They are forbidden from publishing their works.
(d) They are exiled to America and other Western cultures.

13. In Part 2, Chapter 12, why does Nafisi decide to cancel class?
(a) So she can go to a meeting to protest the government's requirement that women wear a veil in public.
(b) Because her students are not coming to class, and she doesn't want to teach to an empty room.
(c) So she can have more time to read books.
(d) So she can demonstrate against the government taking over the university.

14. In the epilogue, Nafisi makes an allusion to which novel?
(a) "The Great Gatsby."
(b) "Daisy Miller."
(c) "Invitation to a Beheading."
(d) "Lolita."

15. Who is Mike Gold?
(a) Nafisi's first husband and a leader in the Iranian Revolution.
(b) The chair of the English Department at the University of Tehran.
(c) Nafisi's first literature student at the University of Tehran.
(d) The editor of a radical literary journal and the subject of Nafisi's dissertation.

Short Answer Questions

1. Whose death is announced in Part 3, Chapter 33?

2. What game does Nafisi play when she begins wearing a black robe?

3. What gift does Mrs. Rezvan give Nafisi?

4. Why does Professor R. continue to participate in vigils at the University of Tehran after he resigns from his position?

5. What political event described at the beginning of Chapter 9 sets the tone for the subsequent actions of Nafisi's students?

(see the answer keys)

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