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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 1, The Writer's Nature, Pages 34-72.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Gardner compare to the floors and structural supports in a fine old mansion in Chapter 1?
(a) Action.
(b) Character.
(c) Theme.
(d) Plot.

2. Gardner notes in Chapter 1 that all writing requires some measure of a ____ state.
(a) Brave.
(b) Fearful.
(c) Trance.
(d) Confident.

3. To whose poetry and prose had Gardner made allusions to in the novel Grendel?
(a) Lord Byron.
(b) Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
(c) William Blake.
(d) Percy Shelley.

4. What did Garner always wear, according to Raymond Carver in the Forward?
(a) A brown suit.
(b) A gray fedora.
(c) A gray suit.
(d) A black suit.

5. What author of Over the Edge does Gardner cite in Chapter 1?
(a) Kurt Vonnegut.
(b) Franz Kafka.
(c) James Joyce.
(d) Harlan Ellison.

Short Answer Questions

1. What anthology of fiction did Gardner publish with a colleague at Chico College?

2. Which sci-fi author wrote A Canticle for Liebowitz?

3. What does Gardner say "breeds success" in Chapter 1?

4. Which philosopher maintained that nothing a writer writes means anything, "all the words are a lunatic blithering," since all language is by nature false and misleading?

5. Which author does Gardner say has a style at parties to take to the floor at any cost, telling funny stories?

(see the answer key)

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