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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Who is the author of The Turn of the Screw?
(a) Henry James.
(b) Henry Melville.
(c) James Joyce.
(d) Dylan Thomas.

3. Gardner writes in Chapter 1 that if one studies with whom, does he learn that Shakespeare is better than Mickey Spillane?
(a) Dr. Michael Mortenson.
(b) Dr. Stanley Fish.
(c) Dr. Martin Meyer.
(d) Dr. Andrew Dryd.

4. What author does Gardner say has a deep misanthropic mistrust in Chapter 1?
(a) Steinbeck.
(b) Flaubert.
(c) Bedlow.
(d) Dickens.

5. In Chapter 1, Gardner states that "In a literary culture where the very notion of a 'masterpiece' is commonly thought" what?
(a) Impossible.
(b) Immature.
(c) Dangerous.
(d) Barbaric.

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

7. Gardner states that the effective writer leads the reader into a continuous what?
(a) Trance.
(b) Characterization.
(c) Story line.
(d) Dream.

8. What does Gardner say we call a writer who has less feeling for his characters than we feel they deserve?
(a) Frigid.
(b) Tedious.
(c) Stylized.
(d) Mannered.

9. In Chapter 1, Gardner writes that one is unable to write for everyone, "try to win the audience both of Saul Bellow and" whom?
(a) Anton Chekhov.
(b) James Joyce.
(c) Charles Dickens.
(d) Stephen King.

10. Where had John Gardner taught before Chico State College?
(a) Oberlin College.
(b) DePaul University.
(c) New York University.
(d) University of Ohio.

11. Which author does Gardner say has a style at parties to take to the floor at any cost, telling funny stories?
(a) Bernard Malamud.
(b) Truman Capote.
(c) Joyce Carol Oates.
(d) Stanley Elkin.

12. What author does Gardner say was known to arrive at a party and sit for ten minutes or more staring at guests and not answering when people addressed him in Chapter1?
(a) F. Scott Fitzgerald.
(b) Anthony Trollope.
(c) James Joyce.
(d) Moliere.

13. What is the first thing that Gardner states a writer needs to have in Chapter 1?
(a) Wisdom.
(b) Intelligence.
(c) Verbal sensitivity.
(d) Empathy.

14. Who is the author of Crime and Punishment?
(a) Dostoevsky.
(b) Nabokov.
(c) Flannagan.
(d) Joyce.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What psychologist suggests that Jack and the Beanstalk is about penis envy?

2. Gardner notes in Chapter 1 that Mercutio's madness is fantastic and what?

3. What does Gardner claim is helpful, if it can be kept in partial control, to keep the novelist driven?

4. Of what author does Gardner say his heroes are clown-heroes knocked around by the universe?

5. Of which writer does Gardner say, "the brilliant language with which he describes a minor character cannot help but suggest that the words he chooses are more important to him than the token secretary behind the desk"?

(see the answer keys)

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