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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Gardner notes in Chapter 1 that Mercutio's madness is fantastic and what?
(a) Unbalanced.
(b) Phantasmic.
(c) Ironic.
(d) Justified.

2. 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) Moliere.
(b) F. Scott Fitzgerald.
(c) Anthony Trollope.
(d) James Joyce.

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

4. Gardner states that in the works of Shakespeare, language always serves character and what?
(a) Aesthetic.
(b) Action.
(c) Irony.
(d) Wit.

5. In what novel does Levin propose to Kitty, as cited in Chapter 1?
(a) Crime and Punishment.
(b) Anna Karenina.
(c) Emma.
(d) Nicholas Nickleby.

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. What is the first thing that Gardner states a writer needs to have in Chapter 1?

4. What author does Gardner remark has a bad habit of breaking the vivid and continuous dream by pouring on the rhetoric in Chapter 1?

5. What is, according to Gardner, the one quality in fiction that cannot be faked?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Gardner write about showy language in Chapter 1?

2. What does Gardner say in Chapter 1 regarding "verbal sensitivity?" What does this term mean?

3. How does Gardner explain characterization and story through his hypothetical story in Chapter 1?

4. What does Gardner suggest as ways to understand the psychology of characters unlike themselves?

5. What does Gardner assert of the author learning character through television in Chapter 1?

6. What hypothetical situation does Gardner uses as an example of plot in Chapter 1?

7. What essential things must an aspiring author understand in order to pursue writing?

8. What does Gardner remark about theme in Chapter 1?

9. What does Gardner remark of the author's sense of observation in Chapter 1?

10. What does Gardner relate about the "author's character" in Chapter 1? How does he describe "special intelligence?"

(see the answer keys)

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