View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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"?
(a) B.
(b) A.
(c) B-.
(d) C+.

2. What style of writing does Didion compare Alicia's underground piece to in "Alicia and the Underground Press"?
(a) Haiku.
(b) Stream of conscious.
(c) Creative non-fiction.
(d) Sonnets.

3. Though Didion agrees that writing in underground newspapers is often "amateurish and badly written," she disagrees with what sentiment?
(a) That they are biased.
(b) That they are unnecessary.
(c) That they are boring.
(d) That they are interesting.

4. Who do the San Simeon tour guides in "A Trip to Xanadu" tell the group still stays in the 21 room guest house?
(a) The servants.
(b) Hearst's sons.
(c) Hearst's daughters.
(d) Hearst.

5. What does one meeting attendee tell Joan happens to kids upon the first time entering a gambling club?
(a) They are so shocked they leave.
(b) He loses his money right away.
(c) He is hooked for life.
(d) Most do not become addicted.

Short Answer Questions

1. What kind of talk does Didion find unsettling during the meeting in "Getting Serenity"?

2. What is the first speaker at the meeting Didion covers in "Getting Serenity" addicted to?

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

4. What does Nancy tell Joan is important to a man at the end of "Pretty Nancy"?

5. How many people does Didion write in "A Trip to Xanadu" visited San Simeon annually?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What happened when Joan wrote a paper for one of her friends at Stanford? What was the paper about? What grade did he get? What grade did she get?

3. What does Joan say about the "great adventure" the men who fought in the 1940s compared to their sons "great adventure" (40) in Vietnam?

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

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

6. How did Joan's father react when she told him she did not get into Stanford in "On Being Unchosen by the College of One's Choice"?

7. How does Didion describe the tone of the tour guides in "A Trip to Xanadu"?

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

10. Who is Skip Skivington and what does he tell Joan about his son in "Fathers, Sons, and Screaming Eagles"?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 824 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample