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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. How was Lao Wei exonerated from the rightist charge against him?

2. What was "Contemporary Heroes"?

3. Why was the poet Lin Zhao executed?

4. What work assignment did Yue Daiyun receive upon returning to Beida after her two-year absence?

5. What was Yue Daiyun's favorite pastime while she wandered in the mountains of Zhaitang?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Yue Daiyun see in Old Uncle that she had never seen among the intellectuals?

2. Why weren't the peasants reassured by the harsh treatment of their former landlords?

3. Why was Yue Daiyun to be criticized while on maternity leave?

4. What does it mean to "draw a line" between yourself and another person?

5. How was Yue Daiyun used during the Four Clean-Ups campaign in 1965?

6. What is the difference between one who is an "alien class element" and one who is a "counter-revolutionary"?

7. How were the landlords treated by the local Communist Party committee?

8. Where had the idea of parading enemies come from?

9. Why did Yue Dainyun feel worse on returning from the countryside in 1966 than she had when returning in 1960?

10. How did the newspaper articles during the Four Clean-Ups confuse Yue Daiyun?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many times Yue Daiyun decides that her own conscience must be ignored in favor of the Party line of thinking. In your essay, give examples of this decision and its results in her life. What happens when the individual completely subverts his will for what he believes to be the collective good?

Essay Topic 2

During the time that is portrayed in this memoir, military and police power were placed in the hands of committees and groups - sometimes self-appointed, as the student groups were. In your essay, discuss the results of these shifts in power.

Essay Topic 3

Do you believe that Yue Daiyun's basic political philosophy changed greatly during the years she has described in her story? Give reasons, quotations, and examples to support your opinion.

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