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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) A heart transplant.
(b) Shock treatment.
(c) Chemotherapy.
(d) Psychotherapy.

2. How does Didion describe Richardson when in the act of filming a movie?
(a) Hopelessly disorganized.
(b) Distant.
(c) Serious.
(d) Deliriously engaged.

3. What did Hemingway instruct his executors to do in a letter written a few years before his death?
(a) Complete any unfinished novels for publication.
(b) Edit his letters before publication.
(c) Never to publish or agree to publish his letters.
(d) Leave all proceeds from publication to his family.

4. In "Telling Stories," what publication finally accepted Didion's story "When Did Music Come This Way"?
(a) The New Yorker.
(b) Esquire.
(c) Harper's.
(d) Denver Quarterly.

5. What did Mary Hemingway allow Carlos Baker to do in his book published after Hemingway's death?
(a) Publish his unedited manuscript.
(b) Publish 600 of his letters.
(c) Rewrite his most famous novels.
(d) Write disparagingly of Hemingway.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Long Distance Runner," what argument does Didion cite when discussing how Richardson liked to be contrary?

2. Didion says that one of the pictures in her mind when she began her novel Play it as It Lays came from an incident in what city?

3. From whom does Didion say she stole the title "Why I Write"?

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

5. For what publication was Hemingway working when he would sometimes rewrite submissions for practice?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. In "Telling Stories," how does Joan describe what she learned about writing while working at Vogue?

3. 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?

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

5. What does Joan say she learned to do when writing "When Did Music Come This Way," and what did that story allow her to do after it was complete?

6. Describe the scene from "Long Distance Runner" when Didion and her husband arrive at St. Tropez to pick up their daughter.

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

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

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

10. Who is Tony Richardson and how is he described in the two pictures Joan discusses at the start of "Long Distance Runner"?

(see the answer keys)

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