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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What kind of ice cream did grandmother buy Peter when they accidentally got off the subway in Harlem?
(a) Popsicle.
(b) Fudgsicle.
(c) Italian ice.
(d) Creamsicle.

2. In what year did Peter's grandmother die?
(a) 1962.
(b) 1965.
(c) 1966.
(d) 1964.

3. What kind of food did Balakian's mother claim was not fresh at the French restaurant?
(a) Pate.
(b) Fish.
(c) Chicken.
(d) Beef.

4. What color were the kitchen cabinets in the Balakian's new home in Tenafly?
(a) Maple.
(b) Pine.
(c) Cherry.
(d) Oak.

5. What advice did Balakian (at the urging of his aunt) reluctantly seek from William Saroyan?
(a) Advice on breaking into poetry.
(b) Recommendations for typewriters.
(c) Advice on purchasing a car.
(d) Recommendations for poetry journals.

6. What poet's work was the class dissecting when Balakian challenged another student's interpretation of the words?
(a) William Butler Yeats.
(b) Hart Crane.
(c) Robert Frost.
(d) Sylvia Plath.

7. What was the name of the poetry journal Balakian founded in 1976?
(a) Graham House Review.
(b) Surrealism Review.
(c) Crabtree Lane Review.
(d) Oak Street Review.

8. What color dress did Auntie Anna wear while delivering a talk at Balakian's college?
(a) Yellow.
(b) Blue.
(c) Red.
(d) Black.

9. Who was Balakian's first anti-hero?
(a) Holden Caulfield.
(b) James Dean.
(c) Benjamin Braddock.
(d) Marlon Brando.

10. In what year did Balakian and his father take a Greyhound bus across the United States?
(a) 1968.
(b) 1966.
(c) 1964.
(d) 1963.

11. How many miles away was Tenafly from Teaneck?
(a) Fifteen.
(b) Ten.
(c) Twelve.
(d) Five.

12. What meat did the Balakian family frequently eat for dinner?
(a) Lamb.
(b) Chicken.
(c) Beef.
(d) Goat.

13. Why was Balakian's father unable to serve during World War II?
(a) Poor hearing.
(b) High blood pressure.
(c) A limp.
(d) Poor eyesight.

14. What colors were the threads on the brocade of Mr. Blumenthal's yarmulke?
(a) Blue and gold.
(b) Silver and gold.
(c) Blue and yellow.
(d) Silver and blue.

15. What was the nickname of Arkayutiun, the soup Balakian ate while sick?
(a) Soup of Love.
(b) Soup of Heaven.
(c) Soup of Life.
(d) Soup of the Soul.

Short Answer Questions

1. How old was Peter Balakian when his aunts began taking him on the house-viewing expeditions?

2. Why did Balakian not like the works of Anais Nin, who was friends with his aunt?

3. In what grade was Peter during the Cuban Missile Crisis?

4. According to Armenian legend, what animal was Adam's first companion in the Garden of Eden?

5. What American author was NOT mentioned as the topic of one of Aunt Anna's published literary books?

(see the answer keys)

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