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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. Where is the narrator at the beginning of the first chapter in Part II?
(a) In graduate school in the United States.
(b) At the Tehran airport.
(c) In her apartment in Tehran.
(d) At the University of Tehran.

2. What gift does Nafisi give to the magician?
(a) A pair of scissors shaped like a rooster.
(b) A bottle of homemade wine.
(c) A box of foreign chocolates.
(d) A book written in English.

3. What game does Nafisi play when she begins wearing a black robe?
(a) She pretends that everyone can see her as a human being.
(b) She pretends that nothing has changed, and she is not wearing a robe.
(c) She pretends her whole body disappears, and she becomes invisible.
(d) She pretends she is a religious leader and has additional authority.

4. Why does Nafisi state it is important to introduce her students to the works of Saul Bellow?
(a) Because Bellow shows the problems and fears of the West, and Nafisi believes her students look at the West uncritically.
(b) Because Bellow presents Western society as not being decadent, and Nafisi believes her students need to see Western culture as not being decadent.
(c) Because she believes her students should read more American authors.
(d) Because Bellow provides an aesthetic counterpoint to the limitations of Austen's novels.

5. 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 realistic, exposing the immorality of Western culture.
(d) As sad, forcing her to change her way of thinking.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Part 3, Chapter 9, what author does Nafisi discuss with the magician?

2. In Part 3, Chapter 4, who asks to meet with Nafisi?

3. What happens to Sanaz when she is on vacation?

4. How does the class study of "The Great Gatsby" affect Nafisi?

5. What is the Dear Jane Society?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Nafisi call Catherine in "Washington Square" the inverse of our ideas about what a heroine should be?

2. What kind of man is Mr. Bahri?

3. Why does the magician tell Nafisi to stop blaming the Islamic Republic for all her problems?

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

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

6. Why does the magician tell Nafisi she should return to teaching?

7. What does Nafisi do during her time as a member of the Iranian Student Movement?

8. Why does Nafisi add an epilogue to the end of the memoir?

9. What are the similarities between the lives of the characters in Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and the lives of Nafisi's students?

10. What are the similarities between Sanaz's experience in jail and the experience of Cincinnatus in "Invitation to a Beheading"? What are the differences between their experiences?

(see the answer keys)

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