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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 3, Publication and Survival.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is, according to Gardner, the one quality in fiction that cannot be faked?
(a) Beauty.
(b) Strangeness.
(c) Honor.
(d) Love.

2. The two things that keep the common reader turning the pages, according to Gardner are story or what?
(a) Theme.
(b) Argument.
(c) Mood.
(d) Character.

3. Which writer, although thought of as a solitary genius, spent time working in close community with Ford Maddox Ford?
(a) Henry James.
(b) Ernest Hemingway.
(c) Joseph Conrad.
(d) Stephen Crane.

4. Gardner notes in Chapter 3 that all second-rate stories tend to do what?
(a) Get rejected.
(b) Sound alike.
(c) Get published.
(d) Get acclaim.

5. Who does Gardner say one can be fooled by the nature of imagining that the best way to become a writer is to be a seaman or a lumberjack?
(a) Thomas Pinchon.
(b) Jack London.
(c) Jack Frost.
(d) Ernest Hemingway.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was William Gass publishing at New American Library?

2. In Chapter 2, Gardner writes that the "true young novelist has the stamina, patience, and single-mindedness of a" what?

3. How did ancient poets get around means of survival, if not attaching themselves to kings?

4. In Chapter 2, Gardner states, "A writer does not become better by being ____."

5. Who is the author of The Turn of the Screw?

(see the answer key)

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