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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What university had Sylvia Plath attended?
(a) Smith College.
(b) Dartmouth College.
(c) Columbia University.
(d) Princeton University.

2. Olwyn Hughes promised to get Anne Stevenson an agent and publisher who would provide what resource?
(a) A sizeable advance.
(b) Printing presses.
(c) Advertising.
(d) An editor.

3. Linda Wagner-Martin wrote a biography of Sylvia Plath. Upon what did her relationship with the Hughes family deteriorate in Part One: Chapter IV?
(a) The publishing of the book.
(b) Reviews of the book being published.
(c) Completion of the manuscript.
(d) Choosing a cover for the book.

4. What book by A. Alvarez about suicide gained added resonance from his friendship with Plath?
(a) The Savage God.
(b) Life after Marriage: Scenes from Divorce.
(c) Where Did It All Go Right.
(d) School of Donne.

5. Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath were separated by the fall of what year?
(a) 1959.
(b) 1960.
(c) 1962.
(d) 1964.

6. Toward the end of her life, according to Alvarez, Sylvia Plath developed a problem with ___________.
(a) Schizophrenia.
(b) Fear.
(c) Hygiene.
(d) Animals.

7. With whom was Ted Hughes having an affair at the time of Sylvia Plath's death?
(a) Frances McCullough.
(b) Charles Stevenson.
(c) Janet Malcolm.
(d) Assia Wevill.

8. The Bell Jar is based in part on Plath's own life and, in particular, her suicide attempt in what year?
(a) 1953.
(b) 1950.
(c) 1955.
(d) 1949.

9. When was Janet Malcolm born?
(a) 1929.
(b) 1937.
(c) 1934.
(d) 1927.

10. When did the Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church begin?
(a) 14th Century A.D.
(b) 13th Century A.D.
(c) 11th Century A.D.
(d) 12th Century A.D.

11. How old was Ted Hughes when Sylvia Plath died?
(a) 29.
(b) 32.
(c) 41.
(d) 39.

12. Whose biography of Sylvia Plath did Olwyn Hughes laud?
(a) A. Alvarez's.
(b) Janet Malcolm's.
(c) Ronald Hayman's.
(d) Anne Stevenson's.

13. In the second version of The Journals of Sylvia Plath, Hughes indicated that he might be able to get his hands on what?
(a) A lost journal.
(b) Love letters.
(c) Additional material.
(d) The original manuscript.

14. Ronald Hayman wrote in The Independent that whose biography was vindictive?
(a) A. Alvarez.
(b) Janet Malcolm.
(c) Frances McCullough.
(d) Anne Stevenson's.

15. When was the book The Colossus and Other Poems first published?
(a) 1960.
(b) 1965.
(c) 1950.
(d) 1955.

Short Answer Questions

1. Anne Stevenson explained in Part Two: Chapter I that she had been commissioned to write a story about Sylvia Plath in a series for Penguin Books called __________.

2. When was Bitter Fame published?

3. In the first publication of The Journals of Sylvia Plath, Hughes commented how in the last several years of her life, Sylvia had found ______________.

4. How was Anne Stevenson viewed by the author and her peers while at the university?

5. What did Sylvia Plath leave for her children when they awoke the night she killed herself?

(see the answer keys)

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