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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why does Vasiliy insist upon lying supine on the floor?
(a) He claims it stretches out his spine.
(b) He claims it helps him breathe better.
(c) He claims it improves his posture.
(d) He claims it relieves his chest pains.

2. Why is Nabokov disappointed to hear that one of his tutors marries a peasant girl?
(a) He thinks of his tutors as people devoted to their art or profession.
(b) He thinks he should have married someone in a higher social class.
(c) He thinks he should have married one of his sisters.
(d) He thinks he should have married his aunt.

3. How does the family spend their time in this town?
(a) Mountain climbing.
(b) Shopping.
(c) On the beach.
(d) On a boat.

4. What does this hobby do to him?
(a) It encourages him to study.
(b) It helps him make friends.
(c) It isolates him throughout life.
(d) It encourages him to spend time outside.

5. Each day, when he awakes, how can young Vladimir tell what kind of day it is?
(a) By having the servants open the curtains.
(b) By asking his mother to check the weather.
(c) By the character of the light that slips through the shutters.
(d) By looking out of the window.

6. Who are Miss Norcott and Miss Hunt?
(a) Two of Vladimir's governesses.
(b) Two of Vladimir's girlfriends.
(c) Two of Vladimir's aunts.
(d) Two of Vladimir's tutors.

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

8. When does Nabokov eventually discover a new species?
(a) In Germany visiting his family.
(b) Not until he is an old man, living in exile in the United States.
(c) At Cambridge.
(d) As a small boy in Russia.

9. Who is referred to simply as "Mademoiselle?"
(a) His aunt.
(b) The tutor.
(c) The governess.
(d) His sister.

10. Though many doubt this ailment, What happens to Ivanovich?
(a) He dies of a heart ailment.
(b) He slips a disc.
(c) He ends up with scoliosis.
(d) He dies from lung cancer.

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

12. How many years does Mademoiselle spend with the family?
(a) Two
(b) Seven.
(c) Five.
(d) Seventeen.

13. After his father's death, to where does Nabokov's widowed mother move?
(a) Prague.
(b) London.
(c) Berlin.
(d) Paris.

14. How does Nabokov open his autobiography?
(a) With a short meditation on the periods of inexistence before birth and after death.
(b) With an examination of his early childhood.
(c) With a short story about the birth of his son.
(d) With a short review of Russian history.

15. From where does Mademoiselle come?
(a) Switzerland.
(b) Africa.
(c) France.
(d) Denmark.

Short Answer Questions

1. Of what are Nabokov's memories in a Russian setting?

2. With what is the aristocratic Nabokov house stocked?

3. What is memorable about this first memory?

4. Why is he detained briefly in 1918, by a Bolshevik soldier?

5. What is a battle against the yawning darkness?

(see the answer keys)

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