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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In what year did Balakian's father save the man having the heart attack at a Columbia game?
(a) 1960.
(b) 1955.
(c) 1956.
(d) 1958.

2. Where did Franklin Delano Roosevelt attend prep school?
(a) Groton.
(b) Lawrenceville.
(c) Exeter.
(d) Andover.

3. What Ginsberg poem did Balakian's mother want several copies of?
(a) Kaddish.
(b) Howl.
(c) Please Master.
(d) Hum Bomb.

4. In what year was the Armenian empire at its height?
(a) 50 CE.
(b) 100 BCE.
(c) 25 BCE.
(d) 50 BCE.

5. Approximately how many Armenians were slaughtered in Diarbekir in 1915?
(a) 150,000.
(b) 100,000.
(c) 200,000.
(d) 75,000.

Short Answer Questions

1. To what town was Balakian taking his girlfriend when he refused to return home for his grandmother's memorial service?

2. What is the name of the torte made with shredded wheat?

3. What poet's work was the class dissecting when Balakian challenged another student's interpretation of the words?

4. What color were the kitchen cabinets in the Balakian's new home in Tenafly?

5. What is the significance of Mt. Ararat?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why was Balakian's Aunt Anna so opposed to American suburbia?

2. How did Balakian's family's obsession with style reflect their history?

3. Why were books so important to Balakian's Aunt Nona?

4. What was Balakian's reaction to the folktales his grandmother would frequently tell him?

5. In what way was Balakian's attachment to the Jewish families in his first neighborhood ultimately superficial, and could it have been deeper?

6. Did Balakian's father have a strong connection to Constantinople, and how did that reflect the city's tumultuous history?

7. Why was Balakian so unnerved by his grandmother's constant doting on him at family gatherings?

8. When the Balakian family was preparing to move to another town, what was the deeper significance of Balakian's mother's insistence that her son not get too attached to any one place?

9. What impression did the writer, William Saroyan, make on Balakian during the party at his aunt's apartment?

10. What were some of the reasons Balakian likely did not seek out information about Armenia while he was still in college?

(see the answer keys)

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