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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. What does Dillard say about humans and change?

2. What changes about the view around Dillard's home when winter comes?

3. Dillard says the agnostic asks who created the universe. What does a believer ask?

4. In Chapter 4 what does Dillard use for controlling garden insects?

5. In Chapter 5 Dillard writes about finding a snake. What appeared peculiar about the snake?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Dillard see as the difference between plant and animal fecundity?

2. How does Dillard relate the season, spring, to language?

3. Chapter One is titled, "Heaven and Earth in Jest." Why do you think this was the title chosen for this first chapter?

4. What does Dillard believe about flowing water?

5. How is the story about the caddisfly applicable to Dillard's obsession with the present?

6. How does Dillard feel about "shadows?" What does she write to show those feelings?

7. Dillard thinks about arctic explorations, which use the term "northing," to denote traveling in a northerly direction. How does she see "northing" in her own life?

8. What is the story that Dillard relates about the Polyphemus moth and how does it show a possible origin of her attitude towards creatures?

9. In Chapter 12, Dillard observes the world at night. Considering the grasshoppers leads her into thoughts of locusts. How did early people see locusts, and where does Dillard's thoughts on them lead?

10. In Chapter 11, Dillard is mimicking a group of people. Who is she mimicking and why? How do you know this?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Dillard feel about harming creatures? What are some of the incidents from her childhood that helped formed these ideas? Do you agree with her? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

In the final chapter of the book, the reader can see that in attempting to understand the natural world, the author is attempting to understand its creator. How does Dillard blend her observations of the natural world with what becomes of her beliefs in a creator? Use some of her writing to illustrate your ideas.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss "literal" seeing and "figurative" seeing as Dillard uses them. Give examples of each. How do these two terms relate to your life?

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