View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who did the Empress refer to as "heavenly maidens floating in the air?"
(a) Young women at a wedding.
(b) Her daughters.
(c) Little girls at a festival.
(d) Her attendants.

2. What item did Shonagon send to Normitsu in response to his letter asking if he could tell Tadanobu where she was?
(a) Seaweed.
(b) Shell.
(c) Twig.
(d) Hollyhock.

3. According to Shonagon, what can't be compared to rain?
(a) Mist.
(b) Snow.
(c) Sun.
(d) Wind.

4. What plant did Shonagon think made an "uncommonly pretty" design on figured silk?
(a) Stonecrop.
(b) Sweet rush.
(c) Wood-sorrel.
(d) Water-plantain.

5. Where did the women plan to go to hear a hototogisu sing during the Abstinence of the Fifth Month?
(a) A cherry orchard.
(b) A field.
(c) An old mill.
(d) A bridge.

Short Answer Questions

1. What color was the lute Shonagon saw the Empress holding in the section called "A Group of Senior Courtiers?"

2. How did Shonagon say the sky should appear on the fifth day of the Fifth Month?

3. What was rare in a servant according to the section titled "Rare Things?"

4. What did Yukinari say he could not stand in a woman?

5. What tree did pilgrims returning from Mitake often bring back branches of?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did the Emperor walk toward the Empress' building while playing his flute?

2. Why did the name of the water-plantain amuse Shonagon?

3. Why did Shonagon offer a gardener a reward to see to it that the snow mountain did not melt until after the fifteenth of the First Month?

4. What did Narimasa do in the section titled "When the Empress Moved" that indicated he was attracted to Shonagon?

5. Why did the women laugh at the paintings on the sliding screen in Seiryo Palace?

6. Why did Shonagon say that young herbs peeking through the snow were unexpected near the Palace?

7. What was the reason given for the way the snap-beetle bowed while crawling?

8. The herbal balls hung on the pillars of the Empress' palace during the Festival of the Fifth Month were supposed to last until the next Chrysanthemum Festival. Why didn't they last until then?

9. Why didn't Shonagon like the husbands of nurse-maids?

10. Why was it considered such a bad thing for Masahiro to leave his shoes on the serving-board?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 798 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample