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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Chapter 3, Gardner writes, "One hears the complaint that conferences lead to a kind of writer ____."
(a) Sniveling.
(b) Ego-stroking.
(c) Incest.
(d) Promotion.

2. Gardner writes that authors are almost never satisfied with the ____ job their publishers do.
(a) Promotion.
(b) Editing.
(c) Preselling.
(d) Reworking.

3. What other author did Herman Melville have among his circle of friends?
(a) Joyce.
(b) Hawthorne.
(c) Conrad.
(d) London.

4. Who wrote The World According to Garp?
(a) George Glass.
(b) Michael James.
(c) John Irving.
(d) Raymond Carver.

5. Gardner states in Chapter 3 that one should fight like the devil the temptation to think well of whom?
(a) Poets.
(b) Teachers.
(c) Writers.
(d) Editors.

6. Who wrote the book 1984?
(a) Thomas Pynchon.
(b) George Orwell.
(c) J. D. Salinger.
(d) Ray Bradbury.

7. What teacher and poet is quoted as saying, "My object is to catch right now what will embarrass my students when they look at their poetry ten years from now"?
(a) Allen Ginsberg.
(b) Dave Smith.
(c) Robert Frost.
(d) Julia Roberts.

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

9. According to Gardner, most rejected fiction is rejected because it's not what?
(a) Good.
(b) Modern enough.
(c) Subversive.
(d) Symbolic.

10. Gardner states in Chapter 3 that for a young novelist, an agent is all but what?
(a) Useless.
(b) Dangerous.
(c) Indispensible.
(d) Healthy.

11. In Chapter 2, Gardner notes that "The wide range of opinion in a class affords increases the writer's chance of getting a _____."
(a) Fair hearing.
(b) Full listening.
(c) True response.
(d) Opinion.

12. What publishing house did Gardner send Grendel to first?
(a) Simon and Schulster.
(b) Alfred A. Knopf.
(c) Hannigan and Hannigan.
(d) Penguin.

13. What is the name of the writer's conference where Gardner has frequently worked with writing assistants?
(a) Silver Mountain.
(b) Bread Loaf.
(c) Peabody.
(d) Last Dinner.

14. The study of what can give the young writer a clear sense of why our age is so troubled?
(a) Drama.
(b) English.
(c) Philology.
(d) Philosophy.

15. What was William Gass publishing at New American Library?
(a) The Wreckage of Agathon.
(b) Omensetter's Luck.
(c) Grendel.
(d) The Sunlight Dialogues.

Short Answer Questions

1. One of the favorite survival jobs of writers has in recent years been what?

2. In Chapter 2, what does Gardner say the world has far more than it needs?

3. To which editor at New American Library did Gardner send The Sunlight Diaries?

4. What is the title of Chapter 3?

5. Gardner states in Chapter 2, "If there are objective laws of ______, not all of theme apply in every instance, and none of them finally have to do with purpose."

(see the answer keys)

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