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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 was Balakian sick with the measles?
(a) 1965.
(b) 1959.
(c) 1962.
(d) 1963.

2. Whom did Saroyan consider his "rival"?
(a) O'Connor.
(b) Faulkner.
(c) Hemingway.
(d) Fitzgerald.

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

4. In what French town did Balakian's parents end up at a police station, after a dispute at a restaurant?
(a) Nimes.
(b) Paris.
(c) Nice.
(d) Bordeaux.

5. What kind of car did the Aroosian women drive during their house-viewing expeditions in 1958?
(a) A Cadillac.
(b) A Chevrolet.
(c) A Ford.
(d) An Oldsmobile.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what year did the book open?

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

3. In what year did Balakian's father save the man having the heart attack at a Columbia game?

4. Where did Franklin Delano Roosevelt attend prep school?

5. Whose biography was Peter's grandmother reading when he came down late at night to get a bite to eat?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Balakian's school term paper on Turkey mark a turning point in his relationship with his father?

2. How did sports help heal the rift between Balakian and his father?

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

4. What did the phrase "the old country" mean to Balakian as a child?

5. How did Balakian's mother differ from most of the other mothers on Crabtree Lane in Tenafly?

6. Describe the Wall family, who were Balakian's neighbors in Tenafly.

7. Why did Balakian's grandmother tell him a story from the genocide while he was delirious with fever?

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

9. Describe the impact poetry had on Balakian during high school and how it connected to his family's silence about the genocide.

10. How did Balakian's grandmother establish a strong bond with him through cooking?

(see the answer keys)

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