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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who is the author of "Summer Dust"?
(a) Linda Gray.
(b) Erin Carden.
(c) Amy Matthews.
(d) Caroline Gordon.

2. What is O'Connor's advice for writers who do not want to be regional?
(a) Only write fantasy and science fiction.
(b) Be an American writer.
(c) Only write fiction.
(d) Move to an unfamiliar region.

3. What artist was John Peale Bishop referring to when he claimed that you cannot say this person painted apples and tablecloth and say what he has painted?
(a) Rousseau.
(b) Cezanne.
(c) Gauguin.
(d) Redon.

4. What author said his aim as a fiction writer is to render the highest possible justice to the visible universe?
(a) Hemingway.
(b) Updike.
(c) Conrad.
(d) Whitman.

5. In what magazine did O'Connor read an editorial challenging her and other writers?
(a) Time.
(b) Southern Living.
(c) Life.
(d) Newsweek.

6. What does O'Connor say that most people interested in writing are not interested in?
(a) Writing well.
(b) Writing for fun.
(c) Making money.
(d) Getting famous.

7. What sort of eyes did O'Connor prefer chickens to have?
(a) One green and one orange.
(b) Very small and oval-shaped.
(c) A shade of light blue.
(d) One big and one little.

8. Students from what university created a pamphlet in the 1920s?
(a) Cornell.
(b) Yale.
(c) Harvard.
(d) Vanderbilt.

9. Besides the telephone repairman, who did O'Connor say is indifferent to the peacock's display?
(a) Old women.
(b) Floridians.
(c) Children.
(d) The peahen.

10. What reason did O'Connor give a female student who asked her why she writes?
(a) "I can't do anything else."
(b) "I don't write; I create."
(c) "It pays the bills."
(d) "Because I'm good at it."

11. How many peafowl did O'Connor have after nine years?
(a) 60.
(b) 40.
(c) 70.
(d) 50.

12. What question did the editorial that challenged O'Connor ask?
(a) Who speaks for women today?
(b) Who speaks for the poor today?
(c) Who speaks for the South today?
(d) Who speaks for America today?

13. Who was O'Connor told should be the model of balance for the novelist?
(a) Plato.
(b) Shakespeare.
(c) Dante.
(d) Euripides.

14. Henry James gave negative criticism by telling the writer that they have treated good subject manner in what kind of manner?
(a) Straightforward.
(b) Wordy.
(c) Nostalgic.
(d) Confusing.

15. What did the editorial that challenged American writers say American writers do?
(a) Write too much like British writers.
(b) Write as if everyone in the country is rich.
(c) Write too abstractly, confusing readers.
(d) Write about being poor.

Short Answer Questions

1. How long does it take for a cock's plumage to attain its pattern?

2. Granville Hicks reviewed a novel by whom?

3. Who does O'Connor quote at the end of "The Fiction Writer and His Country"?

4. O'Connor became frustrated because the writing students she addressed were looking for what?

5. What does O'Connor says causes Southerners anguish?

(see the answer keys)

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