The Master and Margarita, Chapter 1: Never Talk with Strangers quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Why is Berlioz unhappy with the anti-religious poem Ivan wrote for his journal?

   • Correct answer: Its Jesus came out alive, as if he had really existed
   • It ran far too long to fit in the journal's next issue
   • It mocked the board of Massolit and its chairman by name
   • Its Jesus was drawn too kindly to suit the journal's line

   Ivan painted Jesus in dark colours, but his Jesus came out completely alive, while Berlioz wants to show that Jesus never existed at all.

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2. 2

   Question 2. When the foreigner first sits down nearby, what nationalities do the two writers silently guess?

   • Berlioz guesses a Pole and Ivan guesses a Swede
   • Berlioz guesses a Frenchman and Ivan an American
   • Berlioz guesses an Englishman and Ivan a German
   • Correct answer: Berlioz guesses a German and Ivan an Englishman

   Berlioz thinks 'A German...' and Homeless thinks 'An Englishman...'; they change their guesses to Frenchman and Pole a little later.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Why does the foreigner jump up and shake Berlioz's hand?

   • He is relieved that Berlioz never asks to see his papers
   • Correct answer: He is delighted to learn that both writers are atheists
   • He is grateful the writers have let him share their bench
   • He is pleased that Berlioz has praised Kant's sixth proof

   He thanks Berlioz for 'very important information' after hearing that the writers, like most of their country, do not believe in God.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What does the stranger's speech about the man who ends up 'lying motionless in a wooden box' argue against?

   • Berlioz's claim that Jesus never existed as a person
   • Kant's sixth proof of the existence of God
   • Correct answer: Ivan's claim that man governs his own life
   • Ivan's suspicion that he is a foreign spy in disguise

   Ivan says man governs life himself; the stranger answers that a man who cannot vouch for his own tomorrow, and may die suddenly, governs nothing.

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5. 5

   Question 5. According to the stranger, which danger is Berlioz in no danger of at all?

   • A sudden attack of heart failure that evening
   • Drowning in the water of the Patriarch's Ponds
   • Correct answer: A brick falling on his head out of the blue
   • Being arrested by the police on Bronnaya

   When Berlioz jokes about a brick falling on his head, the stranger says no brick falls out of the blue and that Berlioz will die a different death.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What does Berlioz say he will do before the ten o'clock Massolit meeting?

   • Correct answer: Stop by his own place on Sadovaya Street
   • Visit his journal's office to check the proofs
   • Buy a train ticket to the town of Kislovodsk
   • Call on a doctor about his heart trouble

   He tells the stranger he will stop by his place on Sadovaya and then chair the meeting at ten.

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7. 7

   Question 7. How does the stranger show Ivan how he knows his name?

   • He says he heard Berlioz call him by name
   • Correct answer: He pulls out the previous day's Literary Gazette
   • He shows a Massolit list of member poets
   • He reads it aloud from Berlioz's notebook

   He takes the previous day's Literary Gazette from his pocket, with Ivan's picture and verses on the first page.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What does 'consternation' mean as used in: 'he goggled his eyes and thought in consternation'?

   • Calm and pleasant curiosity
   • Stubborn, angry disbelief
   • Quiet, careful concentration
   • Correct answer: Anxious, bewildered alarm

   Consternation is a feeling of anxious alarm at something unexpected, here Berlioz's shock at the see-through man.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What does 'insouciant' mean as used in: 'Homeless goggled his eyes wildly and spitefully at the insouciant stranger'?

   • Rude and openly hostile
   • Silent and mysterious
   • Correct answer: Carefree and unconcerned
   • Nervous and fidgeting

   Insouciant means showing a casual lack of concern; the stranger is cheerfully untroubled after predicting a beheading.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does 'adroitly' mean as used in: 'the foreigner adroitly sat down between them'?

    • Correct answer: Skillfully and smoothly
    • Rudely and without asking
    • Clumsily and with effort
    • Slowly and with caution

    Adroitly means with skill and ease; the stranger slips neatly into the gap the writers make on the bench.

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11. 11

    Question 11. Which of these events happen in Chapter 1?

    • The woman at the stand serves the writers cold beer.

      Didn't happen

      The woman says there is no seltzer and the beer will not come until evening, so the writers drink warm apricot soda instead.

    • Berlioz sees a see-through man in a checkered jacket.

      Happened

      Berlioz sees a transparent citizen in a jockey's cap and a short checkered jacket made of air sway before him, and then the phantasm dissolves.

    • Berlioz accepts a cigarette from the stranger's gold case.

      Didn't happen

      Ivan and the stranger light up, but Berlioz, a non-smoker, declines the cigarette.

    • Ivan asks the stranger if he has ever been in a hospital for the mentally ill.

      Happened

      Ivan asks the stranger whether he has ever been in a hospital for the mentally ill, and the stranger laughs that he has, more than once.

    • Berlioz insists on reading the stranger's passport.

      Didn't happen

      Berlioz politely signals that there is no need to show papers, and the stranger puts his card and passport back in his pocket.

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12. 12

    Question 12. Which of these does the stranger actually say or do in Chapter 1?

    • He calls himself a specialist in black magic.

      Happened

      Asked what his field is, the professor answers that he is a specialist in black magic.

    • He tells the writers the name of the Komsomol girl.

      Didn't happen

      He says only that Berlioz's head will be cut off by a Russian woman, a Komsomol girl, and gives her no name.

    • He claims he once spoke to Kant at breakfast.

      Happened

      When Ivan proposes sending Kant to Solovki, the stranger cries that he told Kant at breakfast that his proof did not hang together.

    • He persuades Berlioz to cancel the Massolit meeting.

      Didn't happen

      He persuades no one; he simply announces that the meeting will not take place because Annushka has already spilled the sunflower oil.

    • His foreign accent disappears as he begins his story.

      Happened

      As he begins to speak softly about a man in a white cloak with a blood-red lining, his accent for some reason disappears.

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