The Master and Margarita, Chapter 13: The Hero Enters quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. How is the visitor able to come and go from Ivan's room?

   • Stravinsky lets trusted patients walk the corridors
   • He climbs down an ivy vine that grows on the wall
   • Correct answer: He uses keys he stole from Praskovya Fyodorovna
   • He bribes the night orderly with his remaining roubles

   A month earlier he stole a bunch of keys from the nurse, which let him out on to the common balcony.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Why does the visitor say he will not escape from the clinic?

   • Correct answer: He says he has nowhere to escape to
   • He is waiting for Stravinsky to declare him cured
   • He fears the guards would punish his neighbours
   • The balcony is too high to climb down from safely

   'I cannot escape from here, not because it's high up, but because I have nowhere to escape to.'

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3. 3

   Question 3. Who does the master say Ivan met at the Patriarch's Ponds?

   • An escaped patient
   • A foreign spy
   • A stage hypnotist
   • Correct answer: Satan himself

   'Yesterday at the Patriarch's Ponds you met Satan.' He recognizes Woland from Ivan's description.

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4. 4

   Question 4. How did the historian get the money that let him leave his job and write?

   • He sold a rare collection of old books he had kept
   • Correct answer: He won a hundred thousand roubles on a state bond
   • He inherited it from a distant relative abroad
   • He was paid in advance by a publishing house

   The bond, given to him at the museum, turned up in his basket of dirty laundry with the winning number.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What is the woman carrying when the master first sees her?

   • A stack of newspapers and a wet umbrella
   • A small basket of lilac branches from the garden
   • A bunch of red roses wrapped in paper
   • Correct answer: Yellow flowers against her black spring coat

   She carries yellow flowers; when he says he prefers roses, she throws them into the gutter.

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6. 6

   Question 6. Which critic's article is titled "A Militant Old Believer"?

   • Ariman's
   • Mstislav Lavrovich's
   • Correct answer: Latunsky's
   • The one signed N.E.

   The master says the works of Ariman and Lavrovich were jokes compared with Latunsky's article, entitled 'A Militant Old Believer'.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What does the master's beloved do when she finds him burning the novel?

   • Correct answer: She pulls the last burning sheaf out with her bare hands
   • She throws water on the stove and saves every notebook
   • She runs upstairs to fetch the landlord for help
   • She hands him a typed copy she had hidden away

   She pulls the last pages out of the stove with her bare hands, then asks why she didn't keep a copy.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Why won't the master send word to his beloved from the clinic?

   • He fears that Stravinsky would open and read the letter first
   • Correct answer: He thinks a letter from a madhouse would make her unhappy
   • He no longer remembers where she lives
   • He believes she betrayed him to the critics

   'How can one send letters from such an address ... a mental patient?' He will not make her unhappy.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these events actually occur in Chapter 13?

   • Ivan swears to the master that he will write no more poetry.

     Happened

     Ivan admits his poetry is monstrous and, when the guest begs him to write no more, promises and swears it; the oath is sealed with a handshake.

   • The master tells Ivan his real name but asks him to keep it secret.

     Didn't happen

     The guest gives no name at all: he says he no longer has one, that he renounced it, and asks Ivan to forget it.

   • The master shows Ivan a black cap with a yellow letter 'M' on it.

     Happened

     He takes a greasy black cap with the letter M embroidered in yellow silk from his dressing-gown pocket, puts it on, and says she sewed it for him.

   • Praskovya Fyodorovna catches the master in Ivan's room.

     Didn't happen

     When footsteps sound in the corridor, the guest slips out to the balcony and closes the grille, so Praskovya Fyodorovna only asks Ivan how he is feeling and leaves.

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10. 10

    Question 10. Which of these are part of the story the master tells Ivan?

    • He gave his beloved about ten thousand roubles to keep for him.

      Happened

      Before she leaves him in mid-October, he takes out all his money, about ten thousand roubles, and gives it to her to keep until his departure.

    • His beloved typed the finished novel in five copies herself.

      Didn't happen

      The finished novel was given to some unknown typist, and it was the typist who typed it in five copies.

    • In mid-January he heard a gramophone playing in his old rooms.

      Happened

      In mid-January, at night, he stood in his old yard by his dimly lit windows and heard a gramophone playing in his rooms.

    • He walked the whole way to the clinic without any help.

      Didn't happen

      He set out for the clinic on foot, but some three miles beyond the city limits a truck driver took pity on him and brought him there.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'interlocutor' mean as used in: 'Your interlocutor was at Pilate's, and had breakfast with Kant'?

    • A government official who questions suspects
    • A guide who shows visitors around a city
    • A person who interrupts others rudely
    • Correct answer: A person one has been talking with

    An interlocutor is someone who takes part in a conversation; here, the stranger Ivan talked with at the Ponds.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does 'foist' mean as used in: 'had attempted to foist into print an apology for Jesus Christ'?

    • Correct answer: To force something unworthy on others by deceit
    • To hide something away from the authorities
    • To translate carefully from another language
    • To praise loudly in public

    To foist is to impose something unwanted or unworthy, often deceptively; the critic accuses the master of sneaking his book into print.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What does 'destitute' mean when the guest, offering Praskovya Fyodorovna's keys because he has nothing else to give, says: 'I'm destitute.'?

    • Too frightened to leave one's own room at night
    • Correct answer: Completely without money or possessions
    • Deeply ashamed of one's past actions
    • Unable to remember one's own name

    Destitute means extremely poor; the master has only the stolen keys to give.

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