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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When Dillard comes upon a rooting acorn, she imagines what?
(a) an squirrel grabbing the acorn and ending its fragile life
(b) the acorn burying itself to come to life in the spring
(c) reaching down to root and its shoot springing towards the heavens
(d) a giant oak, two hundred years from then

2. What does Dillard believe the flood shows about nature?
(a) the effusiveness of creation
(b) nature doesn't like humans
(c) nature can't be controlled
(d) it's destructive

3. What does Dillard see as the price of life?
(a) being eaten by a greater predator
(b) death
(c) lack of control
(d) having to work constantly for food

4. When do Eskimos hunt caribou?
(a) at the beginning of winter
(b) at the end of spring
(c) right before summer
(d) in the fall

5. In Chapter 13, Dillard quotes Van Gogh. What did she quote?
(a) it's important to see
(b) the important thing is to breathe
(c) life is not art
(d) life is not pretty

6. The balance enables her to think about the beauty without doing what?
(a) making all of nature bad
(b) wanting to move to a large city and never be in nature again
(c) making all of nature good
(d) constantly remember the aspects of nature which she finds ugly

7. What does Dillard think the butterflies smell like?
(a) honeysuckle
(b) fall leaves
(c) snow
(d) Tinker Creek

8. The previous year, what did Hurricane Agnes do in the area?
(a) dumped enormous amounts of rain
(b) blew a tree down on top of Dillard's cabin
(c) wiped out all the flowers in the area
(d) it missed the area, so it did nothing

9. What is the other type of poisonous snake besides the answer in #139, that lives around the creek area?
(a) coral snake
(b) side winder
(c) timber rattler
(d) cotton mouth

10. What does Dillard say about the muskrat fur?
(a) it's smelly when wet
(b) they are the most popular fur animal in North America
(c) it's thin and of little use
(d) it tends to be spotty

11. How did early man view locusts?
(a) locusts were thought to be a plague sent by God
(b) as the harbringer of a natural disaster
(c) as a plague sent by the devil
(d) as a visitation from heaven

12. What does the term the term "northing" mean?
(a) denotes traveling in a northerly direction
(b) types of birds that don't migrate
(c) the name the Eskimoes use for themselves
(d) someone who lives near the artic circle

13. When ancient Hebrews sacrificed an animal to their god, how did they use the horns?
(a) they didn't use them
(b) to cage the animal
(c) poured blood into the horns
(d) to strenthen the altar for a larger animal

14. When moving towards a muskrat, how does one keep from scaring it?
(a) lay down and crawl on your belly
(b) sit still and hold your breath
(c) move when the muskrat's head is turned away from your direction
(d) walk in the water

15. What does the author think about fish?
(a) they are fairly clean food
(b) they are rather dumb water inhabitants
(c) they are quiet animals
(d) they are spirit food

Short Answer Questions

1. What would Dillard term passive pursuit of animals?

2. When Dillard discovers so much violence and horror in the natural world, how does she feel?

3. What does Dillard say is the driving force after reproduction in the animal kingdom?

4. Believing natural disasters were sent by God is an example of what?

5. How long does the migration of monarchs continue?

(see the answer keys)

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