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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is seen as a dreaded event?

2. What properties do the Nabokovs own until the Russian revolution?

3. With what is the aristocratic Nabokov house stocked?

4. What does the butterfly net in particular always invite?

5. What is memorable about this first memory?

Short Essay Questions

1. The aristocratic Nabokov house is stocked with English and French amenities. What are some of the amenities?

2. What is a difficulty that Russian writers endure?

3. How do the Nabokovs travel from St. Petersburg to Paris?

4. Describe Nabokov's mother.

5. Vladimir and his brother, Sergey, go through a series of nurses and governesses. Describe some of his memories of these women.

6. Why does Mademoiselle want to leave the family?

7. What does the Russian revolution do to most of Russia's writers and artists?

8. What evidence is there showing that Nabokov and Tamara's relationship is not as innocent as his parents may think it is.

9. How does his butterfly hobby affect his life?

10. Nabokov reveals that his mind always associates sounds with colors. How does his mother react to this unusual sensibility?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

This autobiographical work ends with the family leaving on a boat for the United States.

Part 1) What might be the reason they decide to immigrate to the United States?

Part 2) What struggles might the family encounter? Why?

Part 3) Will Nabokov be successful in the United States? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Nabokov has always had difficulty sleeping.

Part 1) Why?

Part 2) What is the purpose of an autobiography?

Part 3) What is the purpose of this autobiography?

Essay Topic 3

Nabokov lives a bourgeois, aristocratic life.

Part 1) What evidence from the text suggests this?

Part 2) When and why does this lifestyle end?

Part 3) How does Nabokov handle this change in lifestyle?

(see the answer keys)

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