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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. Who once said that '..his firewood warmed him twice because he labored to cut his own'?

2. What was Dillard's only physical activity in the one-room log cabin on an empty beach?

3. What does Dillard say that she believes may well be a writer's only firsthand experience?

4. What does Dillard say that she remembers seeing on the island at Haro Strait that made her weep on the shore in fear?

5. What written advice was found that Michelangelo had left for his apprentice?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Dillard compare a writer writing a first draft to a Zulu warrior and an Aztec maiden?

2. What did the children who visited Dillard in Chapter 3 surprise her with?

3. When Dillard mentions that Thoreau's firewood warmed him twice because he labored to cut his own wood, why does she say that her wood froze her twice?

4. How does a work in progress turn on its author, according to Dillard?

5. What did Dillard learn from the local ferryman?

6. Why did the island on Haro Strait haunt Dillard?

7. What did writers such as Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Ralph Ellison, and Eudora Welty have in common when learning to write, according to Dillard?

8. How does Dillard say that she believes a writer must control his or her own energies in order to work?

9. Why does Dillard say that she needed more materials than a pencil and paper in order to write something like a second draft for a thirty-page chapter?

10. What does Dillard mean in Chapter 5 when she writes, '...instead we watch television and miss the show'?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What was Dillard, as a reader, looking for and hoping to find when reading? What emotions and insights did Dillard hope to find? What does Dillard believe many people do that inspires her to write "..instead we watch television and miss the show"?

Essay Topic 2

What is wood-splitting a metaphor for in Chapter 3? What did Dillard learn besides how to properly split wood?

Essay Topic 3

Dillard taped up her pen drawing of the scene outside her window to the venetian blinds. Explain how this helped her concentrate on her work.

What was missing in the drawing of the scene that was really outside the window? Why wasn't it enough for her to just close the blinds?

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This section contains 1,050 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample