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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. Whose death is "Thou Shalt Not Kill" written in mourning of?
(a) Karl Marx.
(b) Dylan Thomas.
(c) Jack Kerouac.
(d) Walt Whitman.

2. In "Visions of Cody," Cody is especially talented at ______________.
(a) Pool.
(b) Darts.
(c) Football.
(d) Bowling.

3. What were the charges brought against the poem "Howl"?
(a) Violence.
(b) Obscenity.
(c) Plagiarism.
(d) Bigotry.

4. What is Allen Ginsberg's fictionalized name in the novel Go?
(a) Albert Ancke.
(b) David Stofsky.
(c) Paul Hobbes.
(d) Hart Kennedy.

5. For whom was Jack Kerouac once a sports writer?
(a) The Princeton Review.
(b) The Columbia Sun.
(c) The Herald Review.
(d) The Lowell Sun.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Herbert Huncke's fictionalized name in Go?

2. Whom did Neal Cassady marry in 1948?

3. In what year does Jack Kerouac meet Neal Cassady?

4. When was Philip Whalen born?

5. In what year did Gregory Corso meet Allen Ginsberg?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is John Clellon Holmes, and what is his impact on the Beat Generation?

2. Describe the poetry of Gregory Corso, including subject and themes.

3. Describe the symbolism in "On the Road" as it relates to the theme of American values. What is an example of Kerouac's metaphor of America?

4. What do Cassady's letters to Kerouac reveal about him?

5. Describe Kerouac's depiction of the jazz band in the excerpt from "On the Road." To whom are they compared ?

6. Describe William S. Burroughs' style in "Naked Lunch."

7. What does Ann Charters write of the origination of the Beats in the Introduction?

8. What political references are made in the poem "America"?

9. Who is Neal Cassady? How is he introduced in the text?

10. What religious allusion is used in the poem "Thou Shalt Not Kill"?

(see the answer keys)

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