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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. Where did the second speaker in "Getting Serenity" first start gambling?
(a) Vietnam.
(b) Atlanta.
(c) Nevada.
(d) L.A.

2. What is one of the newspapers that the author lists as one of the few that do not make her feel as though "the oxygen has been cut off from [her] brain tissue" (20)?
(a) The EastSide Reporter.
(b) The Wall Street Journal.
(c) The San Francisco Chronicle.
(d) The New York Times.

3. What word does Joan use to describe the way things were back when she received her rejection letter compared to when she wrote 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) Old-Fashioned.
(b) Silly.
(c) Intense.
(d) Benign.

4. Where does Nancy's daughter go to school in "Pretty Nancy"?
(a) A boarding school in Arizona.
(b) Nancy homeschooled.
(c) A public school in San Francisco.
(d) A private school in Sacramento.

5. In what year was Skip active in the 101st Airborne in "Fathers, Sons, Screaming Eagles"?
(a) 1944.
(b) 1958.
(c) 1919.
(d) 1964.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Skip tell Joan he is not to be mistaken for despite having a beard in "Fathers, Sons, Screaming Eagles"?

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

3. Why does Walter Davis feel his perspective on war has changed in "Fathers, Sons, Screaming Eagles"?

4. What does Didion say she did when she first read the college rejection letter in "On Being Unchosen by the College of One's Choice"?

5. In "On Being Unchosen by the College of One's Choice," what does Joan say her father did when she told him of her rejection letter?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. 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?

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

7. What happened to Joan on April 25, 1952 in "On Being Unchosen by the College of One's Choice" and how did she react?

8. What does Didion say about objectivity in "Alicia and the Underground Press"?

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

10. Describe the 22-year-old speaker in "Getting Serenity."

(see the answer keys)

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