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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 did Hemingway undergo in February 1961 according to Didion in "Last Words"?
(a) Psychotherapy.
(b) Chemotherapy.
(c) A heart transplant.
(d) Shock treatment.

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

3. In "Why I Write," what does Didion say she "plays by ear" (44)?
(a) Grammar.
(b) Piano.
(c) Guitar.
(d) Saxophone.

4. Where is the film The Border being shot at the start of "Long Distance Runner"?
(a) Hollywood.
(b) Colorado Springs.
(c) New York.
(d) El Paso.

5. Which Hemingway novel is quoted at the start of "Last Words"?
(a) The Sun Also Shines.
(b) A Farewell to Arms.
(c) The Old Man and the Sea.
(d) A Moveable Feast.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Telling Stories," how many places had Didion lived by the time she took English 106A?

2. What wife of Hemingway's is mentioned at the start of "Last Words"?

3. What is something Didion felt her classmates in English 106A had that she did not in "Telling Stories"?

4. What tennis player's behavior did Richardson say was "glorious" accordion to Didion in "Long Distance Runner"?

5. Where is Didion working at the start of "Some Women"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Didion say about the Milton class she had to take in order to graduate from Berkeley?

2. What brief moment at the Riviera Casino in Las Vegas worked into her novel Play it as it Lays?

3. What did Didion first think Run River was a story about, and what did it become?

4. What character in A Book of Common Prayer developed from an image of the Panama airport at 6 a.m. that stayed in Joan's mind?

5. In "Telling Stories," what grade does Joan say she received in 106A, and why does she think she got that grade?

6. Where did Didion attend photoshoots in her story "Some Women," and what does she say she noticed about the most successful shoots?

7. In "Some Women," what does Didion say about what artists do and do not like to talk about with regard to their art?

8. What does Didion say about the title for her talk "Why I Write" at the start? From whom did she steal the title and what did she like about it?

9. What surprised Didion after Richardson's death upon reading his manuscript?

10. In "Last Words," what did Carlos Baker say with regard to why he thought it important to publish Hemingway's letters?

(see the answer keys)

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