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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What book does King recommend for grammar study?
(a) Betty Azar's Understanding and Using English Grammar.
(b) Any good high school grammar text.
(c) Prentice-Hall Handbook of Grammar.
(d) Strunk and White's Elements of Style.

2. On certain occasions, King believes that grammar rules _________ .
(a) Can be ignored.
(b) Should be discussed between characters.
(c) Can be explained casually to the reader.
(d) May be played with.

3. According to King, what is the most important tool for a writer?
(a) Lots of notes.
(b) Vocabulary.
(c) Good typing skills.
(d) An excellent computer.

4. Another belief of King is that writers have a special need. What is this need?
(a) A telephone.
(b) An office equipped with a computer and internet access.
(c) A specific space in which to write.
(d) A modern computer with Skype and YouTube accounts.

5. How does King feel about figures of speech?
(a) He thinks they should be used extensively.
(b) He thinks that writers should use other ways of transmitting their thoughts.
(c) He says they should be avoided.
(d) He says a writer should avoid similes and metaphors that are cliché and make little sense.

6. How does King define vocabulary?
(a) An essential tool for good writing.
(b) The sum of the words you know.
(c) Good words and knowledge of how to use them.
(d) A knowledge of words used by different people that you are going to write about.

7. According to King, grammar rules were _______________ .
(a) Convenient conventions.
(b) Necessary for communication.
(c) Made to be broken.
(d) To be followed.

8. What does King's uncle use from the toolbox?
(a) Several tools.
(b) A hammer and some nails.
(c) Only a screwdriver.
(d) A screwdriver and a hammer.

9. What does King consider to be a writer's practice?
(a) Reading.
(b) Writing exercises.
(c) Any kind of writing.
(d) Daily journal entries.

10. King has been called a hack over the years. What is a hack?
(a) A literary drudge.
(b) A writer of trivial matter.
(c) A writer with no talent.
(d) An excellent writer.

11. What equipment does a writer need according to King?
(a) A computer, or a pad of paper, and perhaps some music.
(b) A telephone, a computer, and some music.
(c) A desk and a chair with a typewriter.
(d) A telephone, a desk, and a computer.

12. Why does King feel that plotting out a novel is not wise?
(a) He wants his characters to be free to act.
(b) He believes it would be dishonest to the characters.
(c) He likes for his story to develop, and then he tries to mold the plot when necessary.
(d) He feels that the story creates the plot.

13. What does King feel he will accomplish with his technique regarding description?
(a) He urges the writer to work more on his dialogues.
(b) He doesn not want the reader to become an active participant in the creative process.
(c) He is leaving some things to the reader's imagination.
(d) He believes that a reader is unimpressed by description.

14. In the chapter, Toolbox, what advice does King give the reader?
(a) Writers should carefully prepare their tools before beginning to write.
(b) Writers should always be prepared.
(c) Writers need their own toolbox to be successful.
(d) Writers need to have outlets other than writing.

15. How does King suggest writers improve their vocabulary?
(a) By reading extensively.
(b) By carrying vocabulary/definition cards with them at all times and practicing.
(c) By learning two or three new words per day.
(d) He doesn't believe they should strive to do so.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to King, what characteristics should all characters possess?

2. Why is it important to King that a writer not be distracted while working?

3. King claims __________ is the second most important tool in a writer's toolbox.

4. In addition to his injunction, King wants writers to leave something behind when they write. What should writers leave behind?

5. What lesson does the experience with his uncle teach King?

(see the answer keys)

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