Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. What is the title of the Jack London book mentioned in Chapter 2?
(a) The Sea-Wolf.
(b) The Iron Heel.
(c) White Fang.
(d) The Call of the Wild.
2. Which author would walk through the hills for seven or eight hours on end without a hint of fatigue?
(a) Nietzsche.
(b) Emerson.
(c) Stevens.
(d) Dante.
3. What does Dillard's "line of words" do with random pictures in the writer's mind?
(a) Dreams of them.
(b) Dissects them out.
(c) Dismisses them.
(d) Writes them down, word for word.
4. What part of the body does the "line of words" in Chapter 1 invade?
(a) The brain.
(b) The soul.
(c) The lungs.
(d) The heart.
5. What does Dillard say many people prefer to the written word?
(a) Recordings.
(b) Life.
(c) TV.
(d) Film.
6. What does Dillard say that she found so appealing about a Danish aristocrat?
(a) His life of leisure.
(b) His ability to relax.
(c) His daily schedule.
(d) His title.
7. What does Dillard say that the printed word cannot compete with?
(a) Music.
(b) The movies.
(c) People.
(d) Travel.
8. How many hours of sleep would Jack London usually get?
(a) Eight.
(b) Seven.
(c) Four.
(d) Two.
9. What does Dillard have to say about appealing workplaces for writing?
(a) The lovelier the scenery, the better.
(b) Avoid drabness at all costs.
(c) They are to be avoided.
(d) Bright yellow paint on the walls is best.
10. How did Dillard get into the library in Roanoke late at night?
(a) She climbed in through a window.
(b) She hid in the women's room when the door was locked.
(c) She had a key.
(d) The door was never locked.
11. What do television and films do to the body's senses, according to Dillard?
(a) They make the writer sense the need to write.
(b) Numb them.
(c) Make connections.
(d) Stimulate them.
12. What does Dillard say that she feels a writer must do about feeling one's work in progress is either magnificent or abominable?
(a) Get the work critiqued.
(b) Ignore it and not indulge in the feeling.
(c) Celebrate or cry.
(d) Ask for help from readers.
13. Dillard believes that some writers weaken their resolve to discard parts of their work. Why?
(a) People have told them it is too good to discard.
(b) They believe every word they write is too important to discard.
(c) The words have come to have a necessary quality.
(d) It is too much work.
14. How does Dillard describe the process of writing a book?
(a) "It is boring and difficult."
(b) "It is something to avoid at all costs."
(c) "It is a dreamlike task."
(d) "It is life at its most free."
15. Who once said, "Which is the work in which he hasn't surrendered, under dire difficulty, the best thing he meant to have kept"?
(a) William Faulkner.
(b) Annie Dillard.
(c) Henry James.
(d) William Shakespeare.
Short Answer Questions
1. Which book does Dillard say she discovered that she touched every night in the darkened library to find her room?
2. When Dillard relays a story about a cabdriver singing a boring song, why did the driver sing it twice?
3. What do experienced writers urge young men and women to learn, according to Chapter 1?
4. As explained by Dillard in Chapter 1, what must be done to a piece of writing after the first draft is finished?
5. In an analogy about a photographer, why did the photographer say he brought the same rejected photograph for judgment every year?
This section contains 626 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |