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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. For what magazine is Janet Malcolm on staff?
(a) The New Yorker.
(b) Newsweek.
(c) Rolling Stone.
(d) Time Magazine.

2. How did Sylvia Plath commit suicide?
(a) She hung herself.
(b) She shot herself.
(c) She gassed herself.
(d) She overdosed.

3. Who wrote the biography Bitter Fame?
(a) Frances McCullough.
(b) Anne Stevenson.
(c) Sylvia Plath.
(d) Janet Malcolm.

4. What literary genre emphasizes the intimate, and sometimes unflattering, information about details of the poet's personal life, such as in poems about mental illness, sexuality, and despondence?
(a) Truthful poetry.
(b) Sinful poetry.
(c) Realistic poetry.
(d) Confessional poetry.

5. What reprinting of letters, in which Sylvia wrote to her mother and which displayed her nice daughter side, was published by Plath's mother?
(a) A Loving Correspondence.
(b) Love, Sylvia.
(c) Letters Home.
(d) A Daughter Far Away.

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

7. When was the second version of The Journals of Sylvia Plath released?
(a) 1982.
(b) 1985.
(c) 1983.
(d) 1987.

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

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

10. In 1952, William Stanley Merwin's first book of poetry was published under what title?
(a) A Coat for Jamal.
(b) Glasses for Peter.
(c) A Hat for Harrold.
(d) A Mask for Janus.

11. Anne Stevenson sent a completed draft of her story for Penguin Books to whom for his comments?
(a) A. Alvarez.
(b) W. B. Yeats.
(c) Dr. Horder.
(d) Ted Hughes.

12. When was Anne Stevenson born?
(a) 1927.
(b) 1933.
(c) 1922.
(d) 1935.

13. Where did Anne Stevenson move after college and marrying?
(a) Canada.
(b) England.
(c) Italy.
(d) Spain.

14. At what meeting had Anne Stevenson appeared to speak in Part Two: Chapter I?
(a) The 4H Club.
(b) The University Women's Club.
(c) The Girl Scouts.
(d) A town hall meeting.

15. How was Anne Stevenson viewed by the author and her peers while at the university?
(a) She was detested.
(b) She was admired.
(c) She was untrusted.
(d) She was considered ignorant.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the name of Sylvia Plath's mother?

2. When Anne Stevenson wrote her biography of Sylvia Plath, she found that she and Sylvia had gone through the same teen-aged angst and sexual frustrations of the American youth of what era?

3. Dealing with Olwyn for three years, Malcolm saw none of the expected ________ in her character?

4. What did Hughes claim Sylvia had discarded during the last years of her life in the first publication of The Journals of Sylvia Plath?

5. The long and confused letter Janet Malcolm received from Olwyn in response in Part One: Chapter IV only reiterated her disdain for ____________.

(see the answer keys)

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