View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How much is White paid for his column, "One Man's Meat", for Harper's Magazine?
(a) Five hundred dollars per week.
(b) Three hundred dollars per week.
(c) Three hundred dollars per month.
(d) Five hundred dollars per month.

2. When does White submit the manuscript for Stuart Little to his agent?
(a) March, 1939.
(b) June, 1939.
(c) July, 1940.
(d) April, 1940.

3. In his January, 1942 letter to Katharine, how does White describe his meeting with the assembled team in Washington?
(a) Neither oppressive nor bureaucratic.
(b) Bureaucratic, but not oppressive.
(c) Oppressive and bureaucratic.
(d) Oppressive, but not bureaucratic.

4. When does White write to Katharine about his separation from the New Yorker?
(a) May, 1937.
(b) July, 1937.
(c) May, 1938.
(d) July, 1938.

5. How does White categorize his debate with the New York Herald Tribune?
(a) Astonishing.
(b) Pointless.
(c) Confusing.
(d) Ridiculous.

6. What poet does White parody in a December, 1918 letter to his mother?
(a) Robert Browning.
(b) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
(c) Robert Frost.
(d) T.S. Eliot.

7. What was White's grandfather well known for?
(a) Portrait painting.
(b) Music.
(c) Writing.
(d) Architecture.

8. How long does White live with his parents after returning from his world travels?
(a) Two years.
(b) One month.
(c) One year.
(d) Two months.

9. What intrigued White about the girls in high school?
(a) The way they wore their hair.
(b) Their silk stockings.
(c) Their dresses.
(d) The makeup they wore.

10. How does the New York Herald Tribune refer to White in their response to his criticism?
(a) A committee of misinformation.
(b) A committee of few.
(c) A committee of ignorance.
(d) A committee of one.

11. How many freedoms are included in the pamphlet that the Office of Facts and Figures hires White to work on in 1941?
(a) Four.
(b) Two.
(c) Eight.
(d) Ten.

12. What phrase does White use to describe the office he and James Thurber share?
(a) An exaggerated spare room.
(b) A sort of expanded cubicle.
(c) A sort of elongated closet.
(d) A magnified coatroom.

13. What idea does White speak against while in Washington?
(a) That writing can be done without research.
(b) That writing can be done without humor.
(c) That writing can be done under pressure.
(d) That writing can be done by committee.

14. How does White refer to his work in Washington in a March 2, 1942 letter to John Fleming?
(a) An impossible task.
(b) A painful, but important task.
(c) A nearly-impossible task.
(d) A necessary and rewarding task.

15. With which faculty member(s) does White eventually write "The Elements of Style"?
(a) Bristow Adams and William Strunk.
(b) William Strunk.
(c) Martin Sampson.
(d) Bristow Adams and Martin Sampson.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the mood of White's January 8, 1938 letter to James Thurber?

2. When is White's son, Joel, born?

3. Following the death of Katharine's father, where do the Whites vacation?

4. How many years do White and Katharine spend in Greenwich Village?

5. How does White describe the perception of him at the New Yorker office in July, 1931?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 458 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample