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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where does Dillard makes a pilgrimage to every month?
(a) the island that bisects Tinker Creek
(b) the small town a few miles away
(c) the the local church
(d) to visit her mother in another state

2. What is figurative seeing?
(a) watching the invisible
(b) closing the eyes and seeing another world
(c) seeing in dreams
(d) seeing with the inner eye and looking beyond outward appearances

3. How much of life which has ever been created, is living at the present time?
(a) about half
(b) 80 percent of all life ever created still exist
(c) around 45 percent
(d) about ten percent

4. What sport does the author play come spring?
(a) basketball
(b) tennis
(c) softball
(d) golf

5. How were Starlings are introduced to America from Europe?
(a) they came in on a boat from England
(b) they came over with a European circus
(c) they were sold as pets to a Virginian family
(d) by a man who wanted all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare to be present in America

6. Dillard opens this first chapter remembering this animal.
(a) an alligator she saw in the zoo
(b) a poodle that lived down the street from her
(c) a robin whose nest fell from the tree
(d) an old tomcat that she used to have

7. How do honey bees survive the cold of winter?
(a) go to sleep inside their honey combs
(b) build nest in the ground and sleep during winter
(c) they don't survive, honey bees die off in the winter
(d) cluster together in giant balls

8. Dillard says the agnostic asks who created the universe. What does a believer ask?
(a) who is God
(b) what role does man play
(c) why am I in the universe
(d) why was the universe created

9. What does the author believe about acts of physical courage?
(a) they are energizing
(b) men do them more than women
(c) they are heroic
(d) they can tire you out

10. One branch of Jewish philosophy believes that part of the responsibility of humans is to do what?
(a) to experience the moment
(b) to help God by hallowing creation
(c) planting trees
(d) stand in for God with the animals

11. How long can a horsehair worm grow?
(a) lengths of up to three feet
(b) three yards
(c) ten to twelve feet
(d) up to five feet long

12. Why does the author think nature experiments with insects' shape, form and "niche?"
(a) because nature is still trying to figure out how to kill off the insects
(b) to see which works best
(c) Dillard figures nature will try anything once
(d) from boredom

13. What did Dillard do at one time about insects as a child?
(a) watched them in the grass with a magnifying glass
(b) catch fireflies in glass jars to watch them glow
(c) killed bugs with carbon tetrachloride and then pinned them on labeled boards
(d) shooed them out of the house before her mother could kill them

14. What is the translation of trompes-l' esprit ?
(a) trick of the mind
(b) tribulation preceeds victory
(c) triumph and agony
(d) till tomorrow

15. In Alaska and northern Canada during winter what is a topic of continual fascination?
(a) when the Canadian geese will fly north
(b) if ice fishing is dangerous
(c) the exact day that the ice will break up each spring
(d) if the accumulated snow will reach 20 feet

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the literal act of seeing?

2. What is Dillard illustrating in her story about the Polyphemus moth from her childhood?

3. How does Dillard see time?

4. What does Dillard believe about nature and change?

5. Who does Dillard think gravitates towards the field of botany?

(see the answer keys)

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