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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. Who is the star of the Tony Richardson film Didion cites at the start of "Long Distance Runner"?
(a) Arnold Schwarzenegger.
(b) Al Pacino.
(c) Jack Nicholson.
(d) Robert DeNiro.

2. In "Telling Stories," what does Didion say many publications gave as a reason for not publishing "When Did Music Come This Way"?
(a) Its depressive nature.
(b) The flat characters.
(c) Its lack of plot.
(d) Its poor structure.

3. 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?
(a) New York.
(b) Las Vegas.
(c) Los Angeles.
(d) Sacramento.

4. Where is Didion working at the start of "Some Women"?
(a) Cosmopolitan.
(b) Mademoiselle.
(c) Lady's Home Journal.
(d) Vogue.

5. In "Telling Stories," how many stories does Didion say she had to write in her English 106A class
(a) 5.
(b) 12.
(c) 15.
(d) 2.

Short Answer Questions

1. At the start of "Why I Write," Didion says that "writing is the act of saying" (42) what?

2. In "Telling Stories," what does Didion say the writer of a short story needs to have that the writer of a novel does not?

3. In "Telling Stories," what short story does Didion discuss as an example of her lack of control in writing?

4. What did Tony Richardson begin doing years before his death for "something to do" between film shoots?

5. Which Hemingway novel is quoted at the start of "Last Words"?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. What does Didion say about Yoko Ono in "Some Women"?

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

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

5. How does Didion describe the public image and perception of Hemingway in "Last Words"?

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

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

8. In "Why I Write," why does Joan say she writes?

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

10. What examples from writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Didion's own work does she cite as examples of artist superstitions?

(see the answer keys)

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