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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. From where does Didion receive a rejection letter in "On Being Unchosen by the College of One's Choice"?
(a) Harvard.
(b) UCLA.
(c) Berkeley.
(d) Stanford University.

2. What does Didion say she considered doing after receiving her rejection letter in "On Being Unchosen by the College of One's Choice"?
(a) Running away.
(b) Overdosing on pills.
(c) Shooting herself.
(d) Slitting her wrists.

3. 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) Milton's Paradise Lost.
(b) Conrad's Nostromo.
(c) Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms.
(d) Shakespeare's Hamlet.

4. In what grade does Joan's friend get on the essay she wrote for him in "On Being Unchosen by the College of One's Choice," how many applications does Joan say the private kindergarten her friend was trying to get her child into received?
(a) 1000.
(b) 5.
(c) 90.
(d) 15.

5. In "Pretty Nancy," Didion describes Nancy has having a smile of someone who did what?
(a) Said something funny.
(b) Grew up in comfort.
(c) Married a politician.
(d) Grew up poor.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Skip keep in his pocket in "Fathers, Sons, Screaming Eagles"?

2. In "Pretty Nancy," what does Joan say Nancy's father did for work?

3. Where does Skip tell Joan he was stationed while in the 101st Airborne in "Fathers, Sons, Screaming Eagles"?

4. Why is the first speaker in "Getting Serenity" unable to sleep when she returned home after 5 a.m.?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Didion say underground papers are able to do that conventional papers cannot in "Alicia and the Underground Press"?

2. In what way does the newsman in "Pretty Nancy" try to manipulate the moment to achieve his desired outcome?

3. Describe the first female speaker in "Getting Serenity."

4. What is Joan doing at Nancy Reagan's home in "Pretty Nancy" and who else is there and why?

5. Where does Didion say she felt she needed to be in the days following the Gambler's Anonymous meeting in "Getting Serenity"?

6. What part of the meeting in "Getting Serenity does Didion find most unsettling and why?

7. In "A Trip to Xanadu," what is the castle people could see from Highway 1 and who built it?

8. What example does Joan use to express how much more difficult things have gotten regarding parents trying to ensure their children get into their college of choice?

9. Describe Nancy Reagan's interaction with her son at the end of "Pretty Nancy"?

10. What does Nancy Reagan show Joan at the State Capital and what does she say about it?

(see the answer keys)

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