CommonLit story: Excerpts from three sisters (if you need the story just look up CommonLit and the name)

1. PART A: Which of the following identifies the theme of the text?

A Happiness is not easy to come by and must be actively pursued.

B Familial love is the only form of love that is reliable and consistent.

C Home is not located in a specific city, but wherever family and friends are.

D Happiness and success based around wealth will ultimately lead to dissatisfaction


2. PART B: Which section from the text best supports the answer to Part A?

A “Brother of course will be a scientist; he certainly can’t go on living here. Only there is a problem about poor Másha...” ( Paragraph 16)

B “There’s no satisfaction in any of it, and the time passes and you realize you’ll never have the beautiful life you dreamed of; you just keep on digging yourself deeper and deeper into a hole... I’m in despair” ( Paragraph 33)

C “When you read about these things in books, it all seems terribly silly and predictable, but when you fall in love yourself, you realize nobody knows anything about it, everyone has to figure out for herself.” ( Paragraph 49)

D “I don’t gamble anymore, I gave it up, but the main thing is you’re all girls, you get a military pension, and I don’t! I don’t have any income at all...” ( Paragraph 62)


3. PART A: How does language from the text show the shift in mood between Act 1 and Act 3?

A The language becomes more optimistic as the sisters make the best of the life they have away from Moscow.

B The language becomes more enthusiastic as the sisters take concrete steps towards return to Moscow.

C The language becomes more accepting as the sisters begin to tolerate their life away from Moscow.

D The language becomes more desperate as the sisters become increasingly dissatisfied with their life away from Moscow.


4. PART B: Which detail from the text best support the answer to Part A?

A “every day I forget more and more, and life goes by and it won’t ever come back and we’re never going to Moscow, never, never. I can see it all now — we’re never going to get there...” ( Paragraph 33)

B “I know he’s not very good-looking, but he’s a good man, an honest man... People don’t marry for love; they marry because they’re supposed to. At least I think they do.” ( Paragraph 38)

C “I can’t keep it to myself anymore. (Pause) I’m in love, I’m in love... I love that man, the one you saw just now... Well, that’s it: I love Vershínin.” ( Paragraph 45)

D “In the second place, you all seem mad at me because I’m not a scientist or a professor or something. But I have an occupation: I’m a member of the County Council, and I consider that just as honorable and just as important as an intellectual career.” ( Paragraph 62)


5. PART A: What does Moscow represent for the three sisters?

A Repairing their family

B Escaping tragedy

C Fulfilling their desires

D Finding true love


6. PART B: Which quote from the text provides the best support for the answer to Part A?

A “Father got his command 11 years ago, and we left Moscow and came here. It was the beginning of May then too” ( Paragraph 8)

B “This morning I woke up and realized it was springtime: everything was so bright, I felt such a wave of happiness inside me, and I wanted so much to go back home.” ( Paragraph 8)

C “I knew I’d meet my true love there; I used to dream about him. But you see it was all a lot of nonsense...” ( Paragraph 39)

D “Ólga dear, I do respect the baron, I do, he’s a wonderful man, I will marry him, I promise, only please let’s go to Moscow!” ( Paragraph 74)


7. How do the three sisters develop between Act 1 and the end of Act 3?