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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through “Suffering Like Mel Gibson” .

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Smith say writers often write about at some point in their careers at the start of “Something to Do”?
(a) Why they write.
(b) The health benefits of writing.
(c) Writer’s block.
(d) How to write.

2. In “Suffering Like Mel Gibson,” Smith says that suffering “is not relative; it is” (34) what?
(a) A waste of time.
(b) Imaginary.
(c) Absolute.
(d) Necessary.

3. What name does Smith say would better suit the writing department in which she works at the University in “Peonies”?
(a) The Controlling Experience Department.
(b) The Controlling Educator Department.
(c) The Experiential Experience Department.
(d) The Mind Control Department.

4. What type of person does Smith say has created some of the most powerful art she has seen?
(a) People who constantly strive for perfection.
(b) People who have no contact with the outside world.
(c) People who feel completely alone in the world.
(d) People who endlessly engage with their subjects.

5. What image of “bored children” at home does Smith use in “The American Exception”?
(a) Staring zombie like at a screen.
(b) Climbing the walls.
(c) Crying from boredom.
(d) Twiddling their thumbs.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which philosopher does Smith cite when discussing the difference between the thinker and his real life?

2. What does Smith say “demanded a new dawn” (11)?

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

4. Which type of person does Smith describe as being shuffled “from one isolation to another and back again” (30)?

5. In “The American Exception,” Smith says that nobody in 1945 wanted to go back to 1939 unless it was to do what?

(see the answer key)

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