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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. How did Dillard get into the library in Roanoke late at night?
(a) The door was never locked.
(b) She climbed in through a window.
(c) She had a key.
(d) She hid in the women's room when the door was locked.

2. When Dillard is watching symbols move on her monitor, which sends back numbers to her, what is it her job to do?
(a) Go for a drive.
(b) Stop immediately.
(c) Hold her breath.
(d) Translate the numbers.

3. In Dillard's thoughts, what words stopped Rebbe Shmelke from hearing his teacher?
(a) "The Lord spoke."
(b) "So be it."
(c) "God bless you."
(d) "Amen."

4. Finish this West African proverb from Chapter 2: "The beginning of wisdom is.."
(a) nature.
(b) listening to others.
(c) to open a book.
(d) to get you a roof.

5. In the life of a Danish aristocrat mentioned in Chapter 2, what did he do for most of the day?
(a) Napped.
(b) Hunted.
(c) Swam.
(d) Ate.

Short Answer Questions

1. Under what circumstances did Rabbi Uri of Strelisk tell his family to dispose of his manuscripts?

2. What does Dillard say that she found so appealing about a Danish aristocrat?

3. What did Dillard's study carrel in the Hollins College library overlook?

4. Who is the Danish aristocrat mentioned in Chapter 2?

5. What does Dillard say shocked her as she remembered a formal lunch with a publishing colleague in Chapter 2?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the inside of Dillard's study on Cape Cod.

2. When Dillard heard a June bug bumping up against the carrel window one night, what did the noise bring her to realize?

3. Why did a ritual slaughterer bid goodbye to his wife and children every morning as if it were his last, in Chapter 1?

4. What, outside Dillard's library window, proved to cause the most distraction to her work?

5. Why does Dillard believe a writer often wants to refrain from throwing away the beginnings of the work she has created?

6. Dillard vows to remember her difficulties writing in Roanoke, Virginia. Why is this ironic?

7. When Dillard glanced in the daylight at one of the stacks of books she regularly touched to feel her way at night, what surprised her?

8. Why does Dillard say that she made a pen drawing of the scenes outside her library window?

9. In Chapter 1, what does Dillard say she thinks of as the usual reasons for an author getting stuck in a book?

10. How is the line of Dillard's words likened to a hammer in Chapter 1?

(see the answer keys)

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