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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapters 4, 5 and 6.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was knocking on the carrel window as Dillard worked in Roanoke?
(a) Mosquitos.
(b) A bat.
(c) A June bug.
(d) Rain.

2. When Dillard relays a story about a cabdriver singing a boring song, why did the driver sing it twice?
(a) He was stalling for time.
(b) He wanted to bore the author.
(c) It had taken him a long time to get it right.
(d) It was a throw-away song.

3. How did a well-known writer respond to a student in Chapter 5 who asked if he could be a writer?
(a) Have you taken my course?
(b) What do you know about the world?
(c) Do you like sentences?
(d) Do you have imagination?

4. As explained by Dillard in Chapter 1, what must be done to a piece of writing after the first draft is finished?
(a) Nothing; it is done.
(b) Delete just a few sentences.
(c) You must strike it with a hammer.
(d) It must be mercilessly edited.

5. What famous author said, "The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon....and at length the middle-aged man concludes to build a wood-shed with them"?
(a) Thomas Mann.
(b) Walt Whitman.
(c) Henry James.
(d) Henry Thoreau.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Dillard's thoughts, what words stopped Rebbe Shmelke from hearing his teacher?

2. What question did Dillard ask Glenn that he answered with the story of Ferrar?

3. What does Dillard say that she thinks an artist supposes a live image to possess?

4. Whose drawings and paintings did Dillard believe show his bewilderment and persistence?

5. How does Dillard describe the process of writing a book?

(see the answer key)

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