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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through “Something To Do” .

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Smith say is the truest, most obvious reason why people write or make art?
(a) Because they cannot get a real job.
(b) Because they have no other skills.
(c) Because it is something to do.
(d) Because they cannot live without creating art.

2. What does Smith say we had before the pandemic instead of death?
(a) Universal healthcare.
(b) The flu.
(c) Immortality.
(d) Casualties and victims.

3. In what city does Smith live at the start of “Peonies”?
(a) Los Angeles.
(b) Chicago.
(c) New York.
(d) Brooklyn.

4. At which point does Smith say a man submits to nature?
(a) In private.
(b) In old age.
(c) At birth.
(d) In death.

5. Which philosopher does Smith cite when discussing the difference between the thinker and his real life?
(a) Plato.
(b) Kierkagaard.
(c) Nietzsche.
(d) Socrates.

Short Answer Questions

1. What name does Smith say would better suit the writing department in which she works at the University in “Peonies”?

2. What “obsession” (6) does Smith liken to her resistance to nature as a youth, an obsessions she says many writers share?

3. In “The American Exception,” Smith says that Americans attacked death as a series of what?

4. What does Smith liken Trump’s speech to after coming to her senses after the first part of his speech?

5. Who were the few people, according to Smith, who did not have to “seek out something to do” during the pandemic?

(see the answer key)

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