View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did Hemingway instruct his executors to do in a letter written a few years before his death?
(a) Complete any unfinished novels for publication.
(b) Leave all proceeds from publication to his family.
(c) Edit his letters before publication.
(d) Never to publish or agree to publish his letters.

2. 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?
(a) F. Scott Fitzgerald.
(b) Charles A. Fenton.
(c) George Orwell.
(d) Charles S Dutton.

3. Who found Hemingway after he had shot himself in 1961?
(a) His agent.
(b) His brother.
(c) His wife.
(d) His son.

4. In "Telling Stories," what short story does Didion discuss as an example of her lack of control in writing?
(a) "Leaving Home."
(b) "Telling Stories."
(c) "Home Sweet Home."
(d) "Coming Home."

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

6. 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?
(a) Los Angeles.
(b) New York.
(c) Las Vegas.
(d) Sacramento.

7. In "Some Women," what writer does Didion say is quoted as saying that talking about his novel was bad luck?
(a) George Orwell.
(b) Ernest Hemingway.
(c) Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
(d) Joseph Conrad.

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

9. Who wrote the script for "Hills Like White Elephants" discussed in "Long Distance Runner"?
(a) Jack Nicholson and Richardson.
(b) Didion's husband and Tony Richardson.
(c) Didion and her husband.
(d) Didion and Richardson.

10. In "Telling Stories," what novel does Didion say developed from her notes that began about a man and woman in New York?
(a) A River Runs Through it.
(b) The Sacramento River.
(c) A Book of Common Prayer.
(d) Run River.

11. In "Long Distance Runner," where is Richardson filiming in 1989?
(a) France.
(b) Spain.
(c) New Zealand.
(d) America.

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

13. Who does Didion say is the only woman Mapplethorpe photographed who came across as being "entirely in charge of herself" (62)?
(a) Yoko Ono.
(b) Patti Smith.
(c) Grace Jones.
(d) Joan Didion.

14. In "Telling Stories," what does Didion say compelled her to try writing short stories again after 10 years?
(a) Her boredom with long prose.
(b) Her interest in portraying a window into someone's world.
(c) A lack of ideas.
(d) The fear she would not write another novel.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Telling Stories," what does Didion say she did in English 106A to make herself invisible in class?

2. In "Telling Stories," how many stories does Didion say she had to write in her English 106A class

3. In "Long Distance Runner," what does Didion think is one of the reasons for Richardson's behavior?

4. In "Telling Stories," what does Didion say the writer of a short story needs to have that the writer of a novel does not?

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 593 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample