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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Dillard find out about muskrats and humans?
(a) they eat the same foods
(b) if a muskrat is aware of human's presence, it will not appear
(c) they both like water
(d) they're both nocturnal

2. Eskimos believe it is a great honor to be incarnated as what?
(a) a human
(b) a blue whale
(c) a polar bear
(d) a tiger

3. Dillard believes that few humans have been as cruel as what, in the natural world?
(a) bugs who eat their prey live
(b) hurricanes which kill plants and animals
(c) sharks that will eat almost anything
(d) the female preying mantis

4. When ancient Hebrews sacrificed an animal to their god, how did they use the horns?
(a) they didn't use them
(b) to cage the animal
(c) to strenthen the altar for a larger animal
(d) poured blood into the horns

5. In Chapter 13, Dillard spies a snake. What kind is it?
(a) a black snake
(b) a copperhead
(c) a brown water snake
(d) a coral snake

6. What does Dillard think the butterflies smell like?
(a) fall leaves
(b) Tinker Creek
(c) honeysuckle
(d) snow

7. What does the author think about the price of fish?
(a) the price is high due to overfishing
(b) fish are free for anyone to gather from the waters
(c) they're a cheap source of protein
(d) they cost more than beef

8. What did a Russian botanist discover about locusts?
(a) locusts will eat other insects
(b) locusts are merely grasshoppers under stress
(c) locusts breed in the water
(d) locusts have too many babies

9. What does the author think about as she watches the flood waters?
(a) the waters are very powerful
(b) what the animals do in a flood
(c) the well won't run dry for a while
(d) surf's up

10. What does Dillard see as the price of life?
(a) having to work constantly for food
(b) being eaten by a greater predator
(c) death
(d) lack of control

11. The development of science leads to what, according to the author?
(a) technological advances
(b) mysticism
(c) new healing techniques
(d) a car that doesn't pollute

12. Dillard is sometimes allowed one brief glimpse of a creature. What does she call these glimpses?
(a) pure good luck
(b) her destiny
(c) a gift of abundance
(d) an act of fate

13. In Chapter 10, what does Dillard see as making life easier?
(a) accepting that everything dies
(b) a lot of money
(c) living in the city
(d) staying in a state of denial

14. Dillard says that if plants had emotions, she would applaud this:
(a) their ability to fly in the teeth of it all
(b) their ability to tolerate other life forms
(c) their kindness
(d) their willingness to live in harmony

15. What is the muskrat young called?
(a) a kitten
(b) a kit
(c) a baby
(d) a puppy

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the author think about fish?

2. What do the Eskimos do with the greens in their prey's stomach?

3. How long does the migration of monarchs continue?

4. What does the principle of indeterminacy invalidate?

5. When Dillard comes upon a rooting acorn, she imagines what?

(see the answer keys)

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