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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. What does Gardner say that good fiction starts off in the reader's head?
(a) An addiction.
(b) A nightmare.
(c) A hunger for more.
(d) A continuous dream.

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

3. What book was Gardner writing when he remembered the altered sense coming over him while in the last chapter?
(a) The Resurrection.
(b) Nickel Mountain.
(c) Grendel.
(d) October Light.

4. Who wrote Divine Comedy?
(a) Bloom.
(b) Dante.
(c) Chekhov.
(d) Joyce.

5. Of whose writing does Gardner say that no reader can doubt the impulse to capture real life, "the special quality of country-Welsh craziness"?
(a) John Updike.
(b) Samuel Beckett.
(c) Shakespeare.
(d) Dylan Thomas.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Gardner say "breeds success" in Chapter 1?

2. Who wrote Finnegan's Wake?

3. What story of Robert Penn Warren's did Raymond Carver read in Gardner's class at Chico State College?

4. Which author does Gardner say has a style at parties to take to the floor at any cost, telling funny stories?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Where did Gardner learn his method of writing?

4. In Chapter 1, what does Gardner say the most common question of the aspiring writer is to him? What is the response?

5. How does Gardner define "setting," "plot," and "theme" in Chapter 1?

6. What authors does Gardner use to illustrate language and character in Chapter 1?

7. What does Gardner say of writers with "bad taste" in language in Chapter 1?

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

9. What state does good fiction elicit in the reader, according to Gardner?

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

(see the answer keys)

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