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

2. What is Hizbollah?
(a) A group of radical Muslims who murdered the Ayatollah Taleghani.
(b) The name of a radical student organization at the University of Tehran.
(c) The title of a religious tract that all Iranians must follow according to the regime leaders.
(d) A religious group also known as the Party of Allah, who are determined to put God's laws into practice on earth.

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

4. What does the magician tell Nafisi she should do to help her students survive?
(a) Help them leave Iran.
(b) Help them gain admission to an American college.
(c) Help them find a good marriage.
(d) Help them regain their imagination.

5. Why does Nafisi form a friendship with Jeff?
(a) Jeff is one of her best students, and they enjoy discussing literature together.
(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) Because her relationship with her husband is strained, and she is lonely.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Part 3, Chapter 13, what does Nafisi get on the first day she begins teaching?

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

3. How does Nafisi feel when she hears the announcement that Iraq has attacked Iran?

4. Why does Nafisi say the dream in "The Great Gatsby" is not a comment on America as a materialistic county?

5. Why does Nafisi include the scene from "Invitation to a Beheading" in Chapter 22?

Short Essay Questions

1. Nafisi first mentions the magician in Part 1, Chapter 10. Why does she wait until Part 2, Chapter 20, to describe him more fully?

2. What does the Islamist Iranian regime have in common with the theme of Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby"?

3. What does it mean to be complicit in one's own crimes?

4. What does Nassrin mean when she talks about the "ordeal of freedom" in Part 4, Chapter 20?

5. Why does Nafisi describe herself as becoming irrelevant?

6. What does Nafisi mean by her statement that she "left Iran, but Iran did not leave me?"

7. How does Nafisi react to the increase in protests, demonstrations, and violence associated with the revolution?

8. In Part 3, Chapter 14, why does Nafisi describe her students in such detail?

9. Why does Nafisi think teaching "The Great Gatsby" was the right choice for that time and place?

10. Why does Nafisi get upset with students in her class at Alzahrah University (Part 3, Chapter 25)?

(see the answer keys)

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