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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What masterpiece of James Joyce does Gardner suggest typing out for language growth in Chapter 1?
(a) "Finnegan's Wake."
(b) "The Wall."
(c) "The Dead."
(d) "Ulysses."

2. Who is the author of All the King's Men?
(a) William Faulkner.
(b) Robert Penn Warren.
(c) Ernest Hemingway.
(d) Franz Kafka.

3. Gardner compares Melville's Moby Dick with what in Chapter 1?
(a) Anna Karanina.
(b) Omoo.
(c) To Have and Have Not.
(d) Emma.

4. What is the name of the man who moves next door to his teenage daughter in Gardner's hypothetical story in Chapter 1?
(a) Bill.
(b) Frank.
(c) James.
(d) Bob.

5. Gardner claims he has been happy writing since the age of what?
(a) 8.
(b) 6.
(c) 16.
(d) 12.

6. What is one of the philosophers who has maintained that words inevitably distance us from the brute existence, according to Gardner in Chapter 1?
(a) Kierkegaard.
(b) Socrates.
(c) Nietzsche.
(d) Plato.

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

8. What author does Gardner remark has a persistent mean streak in his writing?
(a) Kerouac.
(b) Joyce.
(c) Salinger.
(d) Hemingway.

9. 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?
(a) Plato.
(b) Nietzsche.
(c) Kant.
(d) Heidegger.

10. Which author does Gardner state had "gazelle eyes" which dominated the room in Chapter 1?
(a) F. Scott Fitzgerald.
(b) Joyce Carol Oates.
(c) Anthony Trollope.
(d) James Joyce.

11. What kind of intelligence does Gardner say is important to the writer in Chapter 1?
(a) Philosophical.
(b) Mathematics.
(c) Psychological.
(d) Storyteller's.

12. With what older colleague did Gardner publish an anthology of fiction at Chico College?
(a) Michael Ewing.
(b) Lennis Dunlap.
(c) James Fenway.
(d) David Wellesley.

13. Gardner suggests the young writer get a first-rate freshman composition book such as An American Rhetoric by whom?
(a) Michael A. Morris.
(b) James A. Richards.
(c) Stuart Waterman.
(d) W. W. Watt.

14. What word does Gardner use to mean a phrase is worn out and overused?
(a) Trite.
(b) Ironic.
(c) Sentimental.
(d) Cliche.

15. What name does Gardner assign to the teenage daughter whose unknown father moves next door in Chapter 1?
(a) Sarah.
(b) Michelle.
(c) Laura.
(d) Wanda.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Gardner states in Chapter 1 that Canterbury Tales is a disguised what?

3. What painter does Gardner remark in Chapter 1 never sold a painting in his life?

4. Where did Raymond Carver move to Chico, California from?

5. Gardner notes in Chapter 1 that all writing requires some measure of a ____ state.

(see the answer keys)

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