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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What tennis player's behavior did Richardson say was "glorious" accordion to Didion in "Long Distance Runner"?
(a) Andre Agassi.
(b) Serena Williams.
(c) Arthur Ashe.
(d) John McEnroe.

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

3. 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) The real thing.
(d) A real hack.

4. 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) Norovirus.
(d) Paratyphoid.

5. What did Tony Richardson begin doing years before his death for "something to do" between film shoots?
(a) Working on a TV script.
(b) Writing a collection of short stories.
(c) Painting.
(d) Writing a memoir.

6. In "Telling Stories," how many stories does Didion say she had to write in her English 106A class
(a) 12.
(b) 15.
(c) 5.
(d) 2.

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

8. In "Telling Stories," what does Didion say the writer of a short story needs to have that the writer of a novel does not?
(a) A robust character.
(b) A clear idea of what her intentions are.
(c) A structured outline.
(d) Time to write.

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

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

11. In "Some Women," Didion says that Mapplethorpe's photograph always exhibit a tension between what?
(a) Light and dark.
(b) Right and wrong.
(c) Masculine and feminine.
(d) Good and bad.

12. In "Telling Stories," what publication does Didion work for right after college?
(a) The Washington post.
(b) The New Yorker.
(c) Ms.
(d) Vogue.

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

14. What does Didion say she tried very hard to do while a student at Berkeley in "Why I Write"?
(a) Think like her professors.
(b) Think clearly.
(c) Think in abstracts.
(d) Think more realistically.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which friend of Hemingway and his wife does Didion mention at the start of "Last Words"?

2. At the start of "Why I Write," Didion says that "writing is the act of saying" (42) what?

3. In "Telling Stories," what novel does Didion say developed from her notes that began about a man and woman in New York?

4. 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?

5. Where is the film The Border being shot at the start of "Long Distance Runner"?

(see the answer keys)

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