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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. What is a major theme in the second chapter of King's book?
(a) The necessity of studying other authors.
(b) The writer's life.
(c) The importance of studying grammar and vocabulary.
(d) Reasons or motivations for writing.

2. What happens with the electromagnet experiment?
(a) It burns up their house.
(b) It darkens his entire apartment building.
(c) It is too big and blows out a neighborhood transformer.
(d) It shocks Stephen and Dave King, and sends them to the hospital.

3. On one of their expeditions, King and his brother meet an unexpected enemy. What is this enemy?
(a) Poison ivy.
(b) A snake.
(c) A black and white skunk.
(d) A bear.

4. When does King begin to submit stories to magazines?
(a) While in elementary school.
(b) While in junior high school.
(c) While in college.
(d) While in high school.

5. Who is the character Carrie based on?
(a) His imagination.
(b) One of his students.
(c) A friend of his wife's.
(d) Two girls he knew in high school.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does King describe the image in the second chapter the way he does?

2. In the chapter, C.V., King touches on the theme of the book. What is this theme?

3. According to King, who determines what the image in the second chapter looks like?

4. What number appears in King's image?

5. What is the first thing King requests in the second chapter that his readers accept about writing?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are some of the things King remembers from his childhood? How might they have affected his writing?

2. One of King's babysitters was particularly cruel. How might she have affected his later writings?

3. How would you summarize the different jobs King had during his early career? How might these jobs have influenced his work?

4. As a child, King had many chronic ear and throat infections. How might these illnesses lead King to writing?

5. In what ways is the rabbit on the table of symbol of King's belief in magic and telepathy? Explain in your own words.

6. Why does King write? Explain in your own words based on the chapters, C.V., and What Writing Is.

7. King was a heavy drinker and addicted to cocaine. He believed that these two elements contributed to his creativity. In terms of the chapter, C.V., do you think his belief was justified? Why or why not?

8. What are some of the aspects of writing that King is not going to emphasize in the chapter, What Writing Is?

9. What facts or ideas show the beginnings of King's career as a master of horror?

10. What conclusions can you draw from King's comparison of writing as a career versus writing as a passion? Explain in your own words.

(see the answer keys)

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