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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through "Some Women," "The Long Distance Runner," "Last Words" Part I.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. From whom does Didion say she stole the title "Why I Write"?
(a) George Orwell.
(b) Orson Wells.
(c) Ernest Hemingway.
(d) George Eliot.

2. In "Pretty Nancy," where does Joan say Nancy went to college?
(a) Smith.
(b) Stanford.
(c) Yale.
(d) Wellesley.

3. What was Didion suffering from which became one of the images used in her novel A Book of Common Prayer?
(a) Flu.
(b) Food poisoning.
(c) Paratyphoid.
(d) Norovirus.

4. At the start of "Why I Write," Didion says that "writing is the act of saying" (42) what?
(a) They.
(b) You.
(c) I.
(d) We.

5. What is the subject of the essay Joan's friend asked her to write for him in "On Being Unchosen by the College of One's Choice"?
(a) Shakespeare's Hamlet.
(b) Milton's Paradise Lost.
(c) Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms.
(d) Conrad's Nostromo.

Short Answer Questions

1. What grade does Joan get on the essay she wrote for her friend in "On Being Unchosen by the College of One's Choice"?

2. What does the newsman want Nancy to do as she answers the first question he asks her in "Pretty Nancy"?

3. What does Didion say she did when she first read the college rejection letter in "On Being Unchosen by the College of One's Choice"?

4. In "Last Words," who is Hemingway said to have written telling him to give up the idea of writing a book on him because he did not wish to cooperate?

5. What does Nancy say her husband never did even for the movies?

(see the answer key)

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