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

2. Where were Balakian and his father when the young woman spoke to the father about leaving her abusive husband?
(a) California.
(b) Washington.
(c) Oregon.
(d) Idaho.

3. What stock did grandmother recommend buying after she had a dream?
(a) AT&T.
(b) IBM.
(c) GE.
(d) NBC.

4. What popular song was played at Lenny Cohen's bar mitzvah?
(a) Heartbreak Hotel.
(b) I Want to Hold Your Hand.
(c) The Twist.
(d) Mack the Knife.

5. What junk food did Balakian reminisce about eating at the Dillstein's house?
(a) Devil Dogs.
(b) Mallomars.
(c) Hostess Cupcakes.
(d) Ding-Dongs.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What singer did the man in the motorcycle jacket on the bus remind Peter of?

3. Whose voice did Balakian describe as hitting him "as broken glass under a tire"?

4. At what age did Aunt Nona begin institutional schooling?

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. Why did Balakian react so strongly to Allen Ginsberg's reading of his poem "Kaddish"?

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

3. Why did Balakian's father send him the newspaper clipping about the Armenian Soviet republic and how did Peter react?

4. How did Balakian's grandmother react to the assault against the man on the city bus?

5. How did Balakian's memorial poem for his grandmother reflect his Armenian past?

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

(see the answer keys)

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