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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. In Chapter 5, how is Beta characterized?
(a) Shy and arrogant.
(b) Shy and aloof.
(c) Outspoken and arrogant.
(d) Impossible to understand.

2. In Chapter 8, Milosz explains that the totalitarian states places such emotional strain on its citizens that what occurs?
(a) They will cease to think for themselves.
(b) The people cannot be responsible for their actions.
(c) The strain itself determines their actions.
(d) They cannot survive long as individuals.

3. What did Gamma's second wife wear?
(a) Dainty calfskin shoes.
(b) Nothing on her feet.
(c) Heavy Russian boots.
(d) Thick Polish shoes.

4. How can the relationship between Gamma and the author be described?
(a) A deep friendship.
(b) A love affair.
(c) An acquaintanceship.
(d) A game.

5. While talking to Beker, who is about to be burned at the crematorium because he is too weak to work, what is Beta's attitude?
(a) Calm and detached.
(b) Malicious.
(c) Fearful of his own life.
(d) Agitated and sad.

Short Answer Questions

1. Delta would have fit well into what time period?

2. Where did the man Gamma grow up?

3. Why was Gamma's writing weak?

4. The state methods of teaching give the illusion of what?

5. According to Chapter 8, how does communism define the reactionary?

Short Essay Questions

1. Gamma did not even try to save his family when they were deported to Siberia. How is this a vivid example of the communist attitude toward individual lives?

2. In Chapter VIII, Milosz takes on the tone of a communist to describe the evils of the various classes. How is this more powerful than a mere description?

3. Delta, in wandering the roads in France, met people from many different nations. How did this universal migration prepare the way even more for communist rule?

4. How did Beta's circumstances lead him to a poetry that constantly moved? Why was it restless?

5. Why does Milosz go to such pains to describe Gamma, when the other writers found in his book are given only a few sentences of description?

6. Eventually Delta's poems became something of a dream, unreal. How was this inevitable?

7. Milosz opens Chapter VI with a description of Vilna as it existed during his childhood. Is this simply to introduce Gamma or is there another reason?

8. Milosz states that the goals of the workers are far different from those of the state. How is this so?

9. Nearly six years of Nazi rule had radically changed people's ideas of private property. Did this help or harm the communist idea of common property?

10. How does the party's definition of a reactionary reduce him to a comic level?

(see the answer keys)

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