View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What has Nabokov always had difficulty doing?

2. 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?

3. Why is the family forced to leave Russia?

4. How does the Nabokov family frequently travel from St. Petersburg to Paris?

5. What does the rain cause to grow on the estate?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Nabokov describe the poet?

3. What happens to the Greek tutor, Ordo?

4. What memory leads to an important memory about his father?

5. How does young Nabokov react to rumor that his father has challenged someone to a duel?

6. What does young Vladimir think about when he wakes in the morning?

7. Why is the couple allowed to be on their own.

8. How does Nabokov's autobiography begin?

9. Where do they head to from Paris? What do they do when they get there?

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

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?

Essay Topic 2

Lenski is one of the more significant tutors in Nabokov's teen years?

Part 1) What is Nobakov's opinion of Lenski?

Part 2) What does Lenski try to give both the boys and their father?

Part 3) How do the boys react to their education from Lenski? How might this information be useful to them in later years?

Essay Topic 3

Nabokov spends his summer vacations in Biarritz, France.

Part 1) Describe Biarritz.

Part 2) How does Nabokov's family spend its time here?

Part 3) What is the author's purpose for including this information in the book?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,007 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample