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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What movie was showing on the airplane when Balakian returned to the United States?

2. What was the Black Arrow?

3. Who wrote The Nazi Doctors?

4. How long had Balakian's father known Dr. Reynadi?

5. Until what year were Christians forbidden to serve in the Ottoman army?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was Nafina's reaction to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor?

2. What was the deeper significance of the 500 pairs of shoes stolen by the Turks from Balakian's grandfather?

3. What did Dovey mean when she said that Turkish culture was theft?

4. How does numbness help people who have endured great horrors?

5. What was significant about the murder of 250 Armenian intellectuals on the eve of the genocide and what was significant about Bishop Balakian's survival?

6. Why was Balakian surprised the Syrian government suppressed published works about the Armenian genocide?

7. Why did Aunt Anna likely embrace surrealism rather than realism in literature?

8. How did Balakian feel about claims that the Turkish denials fall under free speech?

9. What were the Young Turks like in terms of personality and education?

10. Why was Balakian so affected by his visit to Aleppo, Syria?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Balakian wrote about his father's love of sports and how that formed a bridge between the two. Write an essay exploring how sports can form a bond between fathers and sons. How can fathers and sons express their love for one another through a shared interest in sports? Was Peter's father able to express his love for his son in any other way? Did Peter understand that his father was expressing his love for him through sports while he was still a child? Or did he not realize that until he reached adulthood? If he did not understand it until adulthood, did that affect his relationship with his father in childhood?

Essay Topic 2

Balakian's grandmother Nafina frequently had dreams that she insisted were prophetic. How did most of the family members react to these dreams? How did Peter react to them? In what way was Nafina still tied to traditional Armenian culture through these dreams? Did Peter's father reject these prophetic dreams because he was a scientifically-minded person or because he wanted to be an assimilated American?

Essay Topic 3

The Turkish government has never apologized for the Armenian genocide and the world has moved on. What impact, if any, would an official Turkish apology have on the Armenian people today? Is it possible for an apology to be delivered a century later? How would the Armenian people benefit from an apology before the world? Would it free them? Would it free the Turks?

(see the answer keys)

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