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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. What is the first speaker at the meeting Didion covers in "Getting Serenity" addicted to?
(a) Draw-poker.
(b) BlackJack.
(c) Vodka.
(d) Heroin.

2. What does the newsman want Nancy to do as she answers the first question he asks her in "Pretty Nancy"?
(a) Pour some lemonade.
(b) Giggle and look away.
(c) Smile and nod.
(d) Nip a bud.

3. In "Pretty Nancy," what does Joan say Nancy's father did for work?
(a) He was a musician.
(b) He was a schoolteacher.
(c) He was a politician.
(d) He was a neurosurgeon.

4. What does Skip keep in his pocket in "Fathers, Sons, Screaming Eagles"?
(a) A picture of himself during the war.
(b) A newsclipping about his son.
(c) A medal from when he was in the war.
(d) A photo of his father from when he fought in World War I.

5. 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) Intense.
(b) Benign.
(c) Old-Fashioned.
(d) Silly.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Didion feel meetings such as the one she attended in "Getting Serenity" reinforce in people?

2. How old is Nancy's daughter Patti in "Pretty Nancy"?

3. What are Didion and the TV crew there to observe Nancy doing in "Pretty Nancy"?

4. 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?

5. One meeting attendee in "Getting Serenity" says his idea is getting what?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Didion describe the way the Hearsts spent money in "A Trip to Xanadu"?

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

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

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

5. What does Didion says about the way Alicia writers her opinion piece about Ann Arbor in "Alicia"?

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

7. Where is Joan Didion in her essay "Fathers, Sons, Screaming Eagles" (38)?

8. 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"?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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