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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. The man whom Sylvia Plath was dating when she met Ted Hughes did not return her _____________.
(a) Love of literature.
(b) Passion.
(c) Mistrust of humanity.
(d) Love of art.

2. Sylvia's failed confrontation with whom in Paris comprised the most interesting and least tampered with entries of The Journals of Sylvia Plath?
(a) Elizabeth Bishop.
(b) Richard Sassoon.
(c) Olwyn Hughes.
(d) Ted Hughes.

3. In what year did Anne Stevenson write to Olwyn about never contacting her again?
(a) 1988.
(b) 1986.
(c) 1985.
(d) 1983.

4. What poem written by Sylvia Plath, originally collected in the posthumously published volume Ariel, describes the speaker's oppression with the use of World War II Nazi Germany allusions and images?
(a) Sheep in Fog.
(b) Lady Lazarus.
(c) The Night Dances.
(d) Poppies in October.

5. What caused Trevor Thomas to sleep until 5 p.m. the day after Sylvia Plath killed herself?
(a) Sleeping pills.
(b) Escaped gas.
(c) Hangover.
(d) Depression.

Short Answer Questions

1. Sylvia wrote in her journal that the fight at the end of the school year had caused her to lose faith in Ted. She asked why the wife was the last to see the husband's ___________.

2. What poem from Ariel is written in nine 7-line stanzas, totaling sixty-three lines, and follows no rhyme scheme?

3. Ted Hughes was the British Poet Laureate beginning in what year?

4. In a letter from Ted Hughes, Alvarez was excoriated for publicly airing the details of what event in his memoirs?

5. In Part Two: Chapters VIII, Elizabeth Sigmund mentioned that Ted and Carol no longer speak to whom?

Short Essay Questions

1. What kind of life did Anne Stevenson live? How was she similar to Sylvia Plath?

2. What letter did Plath write to Richard Sassoon in The Journals of Sylvia Plath? How did this relate to her later poetry?

3. What surprised Malcolm about Anne Stevenson in her similarities to Sylvia?

4. What public dispute did Alvarez and Ted Hughes have via letters?

5. What did Anne Stevenson reveal about Ted Hughes in her interview with Malcolm in Part Two: Chapter IV?

6. When and why did Ted Hughes and A. Alvarez put their differences behind them?

7. What did Ted Hughes write to Anne Stevenson regarding Bitter Fame?

8. How did the editor of The Journals of Sylvia Plath defend herself to criticism?

9. What biographies offended the Hughes family the most? Why?

10. How did Elizabeth Sigmund describe Olwyn Hughes?

(see the answer keys)

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