View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 5.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is seen as a dreaded event?
(a) Speaking in public.
(b) Eating.
(c) Sleep.
(d) Writing.

2. With what is the aristocratic Nabokov house stocked?
(a) French literature.
(b) German beer.
(c) English and French amenities.
(d) Russian antiques.

3. What would change throughout Nabokov's childhood, depending on the prevailing advice of the family's current medical consultant?
(a) The medicines his mother uses.
(b) How much he exercises.
(c) The temperature in his home.
(d) The temperature of the bath water.

4. What mystifies the two boys about Mademoiselle?
(a) She reads many novels to the boys, all in French, with a smooth, gentle voice.
(b) She is kind most of the timea but can easily lose her temper.
(c)
(d) She has children that visit her once a month, but she never allows the two boys to play with her children.

5. It is unusual for aristocrats in Russian to be hanged, and as a child, what does Nabokov call the trail through the woods on the estate where a previous owner had been hanged?
(a) The "walk of the Hanged One."
(b) The "Road to a Hanging."
(c) The "Path of the Hanged."
(d) The "Hanging Rope."

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Nabokov call the process of using both the English and Russian translations of "Speak, Memory" to shape the current work?

2. Why does Nabokov's mother often wander the estate's forest?

3. To what is Nabokov's mother quite sensitive?

4. What is the common name for Boletusoften?

5. Who are Miss Norcott and Miss Hunt?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 281 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample