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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where is Didion working at the start of "Some Women"?
(a) Lady's Home Journal.
(b) Vogue.
(c) Mademoiselle.
(d) Cosmopolitan.

2. In "Why I Write," what does Didion say she "plays by ear" (44)?
(a) Grammar.
(b) Piano.
(c) Saxophone.
(d) Guitar.

3. What issue plagued Hemingway by the time he was at the height of fame according to Didion in "Last Words"?
(a) Depression.
(b) Poverty.
(c) Agoraphobia.
(d) Alcoholism.

4. What is something Didion felt her classmates in English 106A had that she did not in "Telling Stories"?
(a) Friends.
(b) Humor.
(c) Wealth.
(d) Experience.

5. What is the name of the male character in A Book of Common Prayer which Didion discusses in "Why I Write"?
(a) Vinny.
(b) Val.
(c) Van.
(d) Victor.

6. In "Last Words," what is Hemingway said to have done to his letters after Ford Madox Ford told him to "write a letter thinking of how it would read to posterity"?
(a) He locked up all his letters.
(b) He published his letters.
(c) He rewrote all of his letters.
(d) He burned his letters.

7. For what publication was Hemingway working when he would sometimes rewrite submissions for practice?
(a) The Atlantic Monthly.
(b) The New Yorker.
(c) Transatlantic Review.
(d) Vogue.

8. In "Some Women," what word is Mapplethorpe said to dislike regarding his art?
(a) Unexpected.
(b) Outrageous.
(c) Boring.
(d) Shocking.

9. In "Telling Stories," what does Didion attribute to why she got a B in English 106A?
(a) Her class participation.
(b) Her excellent writing.
(c) Her teacher's disorganization.
(d) Her teacher's kindness and understanding.

10. In "Why I Write," Didion refers to writing as "the tactic of a secret" what?
(a) Bully.
(b) Genius.
(c) Introvert.
(d) Snob.

11. What is F. Scott Fitzgerald quoted as calling Hemingway in a letter to Maxwell Perkins in "Last Words"?
(a) A rising talent.
(b) An okay writer.
(c) A real hack.
(d) The real thing.

12. In "Last Words," what writer does Didion say she could see Hemingway's influence on while teaching at Berkeley?
(a) George Orwell.
(b) F. Scott Fitzgerald.
(c) Gertrude Stein.
(d) William Faulkner.

13. In "Telling Stories," what publication finally accepted Didion's story "When Did Music Come This Way"?
(a) The New Yorker.
(b) Esquire.
(c) Harper's.
(d) Denver Quarterly.

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

15. In "Telling Stories," what Hemingway short story does Didion mention as an example of a writer's "absolute control" (54)?
(a) "Hills Like White Elephants."
(b) "Snows of Kilimanjaro."
(c) "A Clean Well-Lighted Place."
(d) "The Killers."

Short Answer Questions

1. Didion says that one of the pictures in her mind when she began her novel Play it as It Lays came from an incident in what city?

2. In "Long Distance Runner," who did Richardson take to France when Didion and her husband were unable to join him?

3. How does Didion describe Richardson when in the act of filming a movie?

4. In "Telling Stories," what publication does Didion work for right after college?

5. In "Long Distance Runner," where is Richardson filiming in 1989?

(see the answer keys)

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