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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who do the San Simeon tour guides in "A Trip to Xanadu" tell the group still stays in the 21 room guest house?

2. Didion uses and example from what underground paper at the end of her essay "Alicia and the Underground Press"?

3. What does Didion say she considered doing after receiving her rejection letter in "On Being Unchosen by the College of One's Choice"?

4. In what city in California does the meeting in "Getting Serenity" take place?

5. In what city does Didion meet Nancy in her home in "Pretty Nancy"?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

7. What is Joan doing at Nancy Reagan's home in "Pretty Nancy" and who else is there and why?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about the significance of Didion's Stanford rejection letter in "On Being Unchosen by the College of One's Choice." How did this rejection impact her in both the immediate and the long term? How does Didion feel about this "failure" early on in life?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay analysis the theme of artist and subject in Let Me Tell You What I Mean. Reference "Pretty Nancy," "Some Women," and "Last Words" in your analysis.

Essay Topic 3

Choose 3 essays from Let Me Tell You What I Mean and write an essay about the significance of the time period for each essay. What commentary might the piece say about any significant event or belief of that time?

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