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

2. According to Armenian legend, what animal was Adam's first companion in the Garden of Eden?
(a) Tiger.
(b) Musk ox.
(c) Snake.
(d) Elk.

3. To what town was Balakian taking his girlfriend when he refused to return home for his grandmother's memorial service?
(a) Boston.
(b) Princeton.
(c) Amherst.
(d) Cambridge.

4. Whose biography was Peter's grandmother reading when he came down late at night to get a bite to eat?
(a) Mary Todd Lincoln.
(b) Eleanor Roosevelt.
(c) Teddy Roosevelt.
(d) Abraham Lincoln.

5. What is berek?
(a) A rice dish.
(b) Cheese-filled filo triangles.
(c) Kebabs.
(d) A pistachio dessert.

Short Answer Questions

1. What kind of trees do the silkworms come from?

2. What junk food did Balakian reminisce about eating at the Dillstein's house?

3. What sports implement was hanging in the office of Dr. Cooley, the headmaster of Balakian's new private high school?

4. What team was Columbia playing when the fan had a heart attack?

5. What food did Balakian's mother bring when she visited during the talk by Allen Ginsberg?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How did Balakian react to seeing his father perform emergency medical care to the heart attack victim at the football game?

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

4. Describe Balakian' s father.

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

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

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

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

9. 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?

10. Why did Balakian and Auntie Anna argue about literature?

(see the answer keys)

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