Three Questions quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which literary genres best describe "Three Questions"?

   • Realism & Social Commentary
   • Romanticism
   • Modernism
   • Correct answer: Parable & Philosophical Fiction
   • Gothic Horror

   Parable & Philosophical Fiction is the best fit. The characters are archetypes (a king, a hermit, an enemy) rather than psychologically complex individuals. The narrative exists to deliver a moral teaching — that the present moment, the person before you, and doing good are all that matter. This is the structure of a parable: a simple story with a universal lesson.

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2. 2

   Question 2. How do the learned men respond to the king's three questions?

   • They all agree on one answer — the king must draw up a table of days, months and years in advance and follow it exactly
   • They tell the king to pray, to depend entirely on the priests, and to leave every important question to God
   • Correct answer: They all answer differently — some suggest timetables, others say pay attention, others recommend councils or magicians
   • They refuse to answer — some call the questions impossible, others say only the famous hermit could possibly know

   The learned men all disagree with one another. Some say the king needs a timetable planned in advance. Others say he must always attend to what is going on. Others say he needs a council. Others say only magicians can predict the future. Tolstoy uses their contradictions to show that intellectual debate cannot answer questions that require lived wisdom.

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3. 3

   Question 3. How does the king prepare to visit the hermit?

   • Correct answer: He puts on simple clothes, dismounts his horse, and leaves his bodyguard behind
   • He sends a messenger ahead to announce his arrival and request an audience
   • He arrives in royal robes with his bodyguard to display his authority
   • He brings expensive gifts and offerings to earn the hermit's favor and attention

   The hermit receives none but common folk, so the king must strip away every marker of his royal status — fine clothes, horse, bodyguard. This physical act of humbling himself is the first step in his education. He cannot receive wisdom while clinging to power and privilege.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What is the hermit doing when the king arrives?

   • Sitting on the ground in front of his hut, resting after his labor
   • Correct answer: Digging the ground in front of his hut, breathing heavily with each spadeful
   • Meditating silently inside his hut, with his eyes closed in prayer
   • Kneeling in the garden beds, carefully sowing seeds beside his hut

   The hermit is digging the ground — frail, weak, breathing heavily with each spadeful of earth. This detail is critical to the plot: the hermit's physical struggle prompts the king to offer help, which keeps the king at the hermit's hut long enough for the wounded man to arrive. The hermit's labor is both real and symbolic — wisdom is found in humble, present work.

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5. 5

   Question 5. How does the hermit respond when the king first asks his three questions?

   • He tells the king the questions are foolish and sends him away
   • He asks the king three counter-questions before agreeing to help
   • He gives a long philosophical speech about the nature of time and duty
   • Correct answer: He says nothing — he listens, spits on his hand, and continues digging

   The hermit says nothing at all. He simply listens, spits on his hand, and goes back to digging. His silence is not rudeness — it is pedagogy. The hermit knows that the answers cannot be given through words alone. The king must discover them through his own actions. The silence forces the king to stay, to help, and to be present.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What happens when the king takes the spade and begins digging for the hermit?

   • The king digs briefly, then impatiently demands that the hermit answer before he continues digging
   • Correct answer: The king digs for hours until the sun begins to set, repeatedly asking his questions without receiving answers
   • The king digs one bed, and the grateful hermit immediately answers all three of his questions
   • The king refuses the spade, declaring that manual labor is beneath a person of royal station

   The king digs for hours — through the afternoon until the sun begins to set. He asks his questions again after digging two beds, but the hermit still does not answer. The extended labor strips away the king's impatience and sense of entitlement. Without knowing it, he is already living the answer to his first question: the right time is now, and the right thing is to serve the person before him.

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7. 7

   Question 7. Who is the bearded man who staggers out of the forest?

   • Correct answer: An enemy of the king with a large stomach wound, who had planned to ambush and kill him
   • A pilgrim traveling to visit the hermit, who was attacked by robbers while crossing the forest
   • A soldier from the king's own bodyguard, injured in a skirmish with an enemy in the forest
   • A messenger from the palace, sent to locate the king and deliver important news from the kingdom

   The man is the king's sworn enemy. The king had executed his brother and seized his property, so the man planned to kill the king on his return from the hermit. But the king's bodyguard recognized and wounded him first. He is bleeding from a large stomach wound when he collapses at the king's feet. The king does not know any of this — he simply sees a man who needs help.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What does "Parable" mean in this story?

   • A detailed historical account of actual events, written in an elegant and literary style
   • A long narrative poem celebrating the heroic deeds of warriors, kings and legendary figures
   • Correct answer: A short story that uses simple characters and events to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson
   • A short story in which animals speak and behave like humans in order to teach practical wisdom

   A parable is a brief narrative designed to teach a moral or spiritual truth through analogy. Unlike a fable (which uses animal characters) or an allegory (which maps symbols to abstract ideas), a parable uses simple, human situations to reach a universal conclusion. 'Three Questions' is a classic parable: unnamed archetypes (a king, a hermit, an enemy) act out a scenario whose lesson is stated explicitly at the end.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What is significant about the king's decision to help the wounded man?

   • He recognizes the man as his enemy immediately — he helps him as a calculated political strategy
   • The hermit reveals the man's identity and instructs the king to help him as a test of character
   • He hesitates at first — he only helps after the hermit insists that the injured man will otherwise die
   • Correct answer: He does not know the man is his enemy — he simply sees someone who needs help and acts immediately

   The king does not know the man's identity. He does not know this is the person who came to kill him. He acts purely from compassion — seeing a bleeding, fainting human being and responding immediately. This unknowing compassion is the heart of Tolstoy's moral: genuine goodness does not calculate. It responds to the need of the person before you, whoever they may be.

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10. 10

    Question 10. How does the king respond when the wounded man confesses he came to kill him?

    • Correct answer: He forgives the man, promises to send his physician, and pledges to restore the man's property
    • He says nothing, walks outside to find the hermit, and leaves the injured man in the hermit's care
    • He orders his bodyguard to arrest the man and return him to the palace to face a public trial
    • He forgives the man, but banishes him permanently and declares that his property belongs to the kingdom

    The king not only forgives his enemy — he promises to send his own servants and physician to attend him, and pledges to restore the property he had seized. The king was 'very glad to have made peace with his enemy so easily, and to have gained him for a friend.' Tolstoy shows that forgiveness, freely given, transforms both parties: the enemy becomes a devoted friend, and the king gains peace.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does the wounded man promise the king after being forgiven?

    • He will build a monument in the capital to honor the king's mercy and generosity
    • Correct answer: He will serve the king as his most faithful slave, and will bid his sons do the same
    • He will leave the kingdom with his family and never again threaten the king or his people
    • He will remain in the forest and devote himself to the hermit's simple way of life

    The man pledges to serve the king 'as your most faithful slave' and says he will bid his sons do the same. This is the complete reversal that Tolstoy wants the reader to see: an enemy who came to commit murder is transformed by one act of unknowing compassion into a lifelong ally. Violence begets violence; mercy begets devotion.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does "Socratic method" mean in this story?

    • A teaching style in which the instructor delivers a formal lecture while the students listen in silence and take notes
    • A debate format in which two opponents argue opposite positions in front of a judge, who then decides which argument is stronger
    • Correct answer: A method of teaching by guiding the student to discover truth through experience and questioning rather than direct instruction
    • A technique of memorizing facts and principles through constant repetition and recitation until they become automatic

    The Socratic method — named after the philosopher Socrates — teaches by guiding students to discover knowledge themselves rather than handing them answers. The hermit uses a version of this: he refuses to answer the king's questions directly, instead creating circumstances (digging, the wounded man's arrival) that force the king to live the answers. Only after the king has acted does the hermit explain what the king has already demonstrated.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What are the hermit's final answers to the king's three questions?

    • Plan every action in advance, consult a council of wise advisors, and make the pursuit of science your first priority
    • Correct answer: The only important time is now, the most important person is whoever is before you, and the most important thing is to do that person good
    • Pray for guidance continually, trust the priests above everyone else, and make religious worship your first priority
    • Prepare constantly for battle, keep your warriors beside you, and make skill in warfare your first priority

    The hermit's answers distill all of philosophy into three principles: the only important time is now (because it is the only time we have power), the most important person is whoever you are with (because you may never meet anyone else), and the most important thing is to do that person good (because that is the purpose of life). These answers reject planning, hierarchy, and abstraction in favor of immediate, unconditional compassion.

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14. 14

    Question 14. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

    • The king offers a great reward to anyone who can answer his three questions.

      Happened

      This is how the story begins — the king has it proclaimed throughout his kingdom that he will reward anyone who can teach him the right time, the right people, and the right action.

    • The learned men all agree that the king should build a temple and pray for guidance.

      Didn't happen

      The learned men all disagree with one another. Some suggest timetables, others recommend paying attention, others say consult a council, others say only magicians can help. Their contradictions are the reason the king seeks the hermit.

    • The hermit lives in a forest and receives none but common folk.

      Happened

      This detail forces the king to humble himself — putting on simple clothes, dismounting his horse, and leaving his bodyguard behind. The hermit's rule ensures that the king cannot approach him from a position of power.

    • The hermit immediately answers the king's questions when he arrives.

      Didn't happen

      The hermit says nothing. He listens, spits on his hand, and continues digging. He refuses to answer the king's questions for the entire afternoon, until after the king has unknowingly lived the answers through his own actions.

    • The king takes the hermit's spade and digs garden beds for him.

      Happened

      Seeing the frail hermit struggling with the spade, the king offers to dig for him. He digs two beds before stopping to ask his questions again, then continues digging for hours until sunset. This act of service is itself the answer the hermit is teaching.

    • The wounded man is a traveling merchant who was attacked by robbers.

      Didn't happen

      The wounded man is the king's sworn enemy who had planned to ambush and kill the king on his way back from the hermit. He was wounded by the king's bodyguard when they recognized him. His identity transforms the king's act of mercy into an act of unwitting forgiveness.

    • The king washes and bandages the wounded man's stomach wound repeatedly until the bleeding stops.

      Happened

      The king tends the wound himself — washing it, bandaging it with his handkerchief and the hermit's towel, and re-bandaging it again and again as the blood soaks through. This is not royal delegation but personal, hands-on compassion.

    • The hermit is outside sowing seeds in the beds the king dug when the king comes to say goodbye.

      Happened

      When the king goes out to find the hermit the next morning, the hermit is on his knees sowing seeds in the beds the king dug the day before. The king's labor has been put to use — his service produced something real and lasting.

    • The hermit tells the king that the most important time is the future, because we must always plan ahead.

      Didn't happen

      The hermit says the opposite: the most important time is Now, because it is the only time when we have any power. This directly contradicts the learned men who recommended planning tables and future-oriented strategies.

    • The king forgives his enemy and promises to restore the man's property.

      Happened

      The king not only forgives the man who came to kill him — he promises to send his servants and physician to care for him, and pledges to restore the property he had seized. Tolstoy shows that forgiveness, given freely, transforms enmity into friendship.

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15. 15

    Question 15. What is the central irony of the story's structure?

    • The learned men had actually given the correct answers, but the king was too proud and impatient to accept them
    • The wounded man's confession provided the insight the king needed to understand the true meaning of the hermit's long silence
    • The hermit's speech at the end of the story is the true answer — everything before it was just a test of patience
    • Correct answer: The king's own actions — digging, saving a life, forgiving an enemy — answered the questions before the hermit ever spoke

    The king searches everywhere for answers to his three questions — consulting scholars, traveling to a hermit, asking repeatedly — yet he answers all three questions himself through his own spontaneous actions: staying to dig (the right time is now), tending the wounded man (the most important person is whoever is before you), and doing good (the most important thing). The hermit's final speech merely explains what the king has already demonstrated.

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16. 16

    Question 16. What does "Allegory" mean in this story?

    • A factual account of historical events, presented in a dramatic literary style with real people as the central characters
    • A narrative that takes place entirely inside one character's imagination, presented as a continuous flow of thoughts
    • Correct answer: A narrative in which characters and events represent abstract moral or spiritual ideas beyond their literal meaning
    • A short, humorous anecdote told to illustrate a point in casual conversation, usually based on personal experience

    An allegory is a narrative in which characters and events stand for ideas beyond their surface meaning. In 'Three Questions,' the king represents every person who seeks certainty about life; the hermit represents wisdom found in simplicity and presence; the enemy represents the unexpected encounters that test our principles. The story operates on both a literal level (a king visits a hermit) and a philosophical level (how should any person live?).

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17. 17

    Question 17. What is the central theme of "Three Questions"?

    • Correct answer: That the present moment is all we have, the person before us is all that matters, and doing good is the purpose of life
    • That a wise ruler should never act alone, but must always consult a council of wise advisors before any important decision
    • That enemies become allies only after they are defeated in battle, so a ruler must constantly demonstrate his strength
    • That knowledge and careful planning are the keys to a successful life, and that science is the most important pursuit

    The central theme is radical present-moment living. Tolstoy argues that we cannot control the future, cannot predict who matters most in the long run, and cannot rank the importance of actions in the abstract. The only thing we can do — and the only thing that matters — is to be fully present now, with whoever is before us, and to do them good. This is not passive acceptance but active compassion: the king digs, washes wounds, forgives.

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