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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What is the "Principle of Indeterminacy?"
(a) the time of day cannot be determined from looking at the sky
(b) it is not possible to determine the sex of a baby muskrat
(c) one can not know both the velocity and the position of a particle
(d) one cannot know how far a star is by looking at it

3. What does the author think the existence of parasites makes the world?
(a) nothing, parasites don't affect the world
(b) unstable
(c) a horrible place
(d) more real

4. What serves as a catalyst to ready the birds for migration?
(a) catepillers making cocoons
(b) the leaves turning colors
(c) lack of flowers in the landscape
(d) the fall air

5. What is a towhee?
(a) a large bird
(b) a type of domesticated parrot
(c) a type of large rodent
(d) a brown and red snake

6. Believing natural disasters were sent by God is an example of what?
(a) having faith
(b) applying a spiritual interpretation to a natural phenomenon
(c) not having a good science background
(d) not understanding God

7. What does the author believe about the difference between abundant plant life and abundant insect life?
(a) abundant insect life is healthier for the earth
(b) the proliferation of plant life, does not disturb humans the way an overabundance of insects do
(c) insects will always outnumber plants
(d) plants would be more abundant without insects

8. When Dillard becomes motionless in watching for a muskrat, what does she do?
(a) she calms herself and sinks down into her center
(b) she sits
(c) she holds her breath
(d) she breaths deep

9. What would Dillard suggest for food instead of creature eating creature?
(a) no one needing food at all
(b) manna
(c) bread and water
(d) everyone being vegetarians

10. When do Eskimos hunt caribou?
(a) at the end of spring
(b) at the beginning of winter
(c) in the fall
(d) right before summer

11. In Chapter 13, Dillard quotes Van Gogh. What did she quote?
(a) life is not pretty
(b) the important thing is to breathe
(c) life is not art
(d) it's important to see

12. What does the author think about fish?
(a) they are rather dumb water inhabitants
(b) they are fairly clean food
(c) they are spirit food
(d) they are quiet animals

13. In Chapter 13, Dillard is still obsessed about nature. In what way?
(a) about the beauty of an oak leaf
(b) about humans destroying nature
(c) against the seeming cruelty of nature
(d) about the rain and the sound of water

14. What makes birds harder to watch than insects?
(a) there are less of them
(b) they fly faster
(c) birds seem much more aware of their surroundings
(d) they are not often on the ground

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Dillard believe about the death of the self?

2. What principle has lead many physicists to mysticism?

3. What does Dillard say about the muskrat fur?

4. Ultimately, at the end of the book, what is Dillard's overwhelming feeling?

5. What has Dillard decided is the meaning of death?

(see the answer keys)

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