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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. In what nation is Nagorno-Karabagh currently located?

2. In what year did Balakian's grandmother give a commemorative speech about the genocide?

3. How many Armenian children were in the school photograph taken in Aleppo in 1920?

4. What is involved in the torture method called bastinado?

5. What happened when 2,000 starving Armenian women and children stumbled through Aleppo, Syria in 1915?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did the Armenians form reform movements under Ottoman rule during the 1890s?

2. Why were the orders for deportation of all Armenians into the Syrian desert the equivalent of a death sentence?

3. How did writing the poem, "The History of Armenia," help Balakian process his new knowledge of his people's history?

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

5. Why did Balakian question his failure to ask questions as a child when he saw the names of the dead listed on his grandmother's compensation documents?

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

7. According to Aunt Gladys, why did the Armenians in America never talk about the genocide?

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

9. Why did Balakian take the bones from the memorial site at Der Zor?

10. How did Balakian's aunts justify the family's inability to talk about the genocide when he was a child?

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

Turkish government officials and their supporters have claimed that the denial of the genocide is a form of protected free speech. Do you believe that? Can speech that denies a central historical truth be protected under free speech statutes? Does this denial make it more difficult for Armenians to exercise their own freedom of speech to publicize the genocide? Does the granting of free speech rights mean that all positions must be treated as legitimate sides in a debate?

Essay Topic 3

Armenians in the United States--including Balakian's family--generally attempted to assimilate into American culture. How did this assimilation impact their ability to thrive after the genocide? Did assimilation mean an abandonment of Armenian culture? Or did they maintain traditions that could no longer be maintained in their wiped out homeland? Did assimilation make it easier for the survivors and their descendants to deal with the fact of genocide?

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