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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When Dillard discovers so much violence and horror in the natural world, how does she feel?
(a) relieved that insects are killed in such large numbers
(b) confused because it seems contradictory to logic
(c) depressed that the world was created so
(d) disillusioned as to the goodness of creation and the creator

2. When Dillard comes upon a rooting acorn, she imagines what?
(a) a giant oak, two hundred years from then
(b) reaching down to root and its shoot springing towards the heavens
(c) the acorn burying itself to come to life in the spring
(d) an squirrel grabbing the acorn and ending its fragile life

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

4. Who does Dillard says stalk caribou herds for days?
(a) Eskimos
(b) polar bears
(c) mountain lions
(d) wolves

5. In Chapter 14, what have arrived in swarm from the Hudson Bay area?
(a) sparrows
(b) house wrens
(c) monarch butterflies
(d) lunar moths

6. The balance enables her to think about the beauty without doing what?
(a) making all of nature good
(b) constantly remember the aspects of nature which she finds ugly
(c) making all of nature bad
(d) wanting to move to a large city and never be in nature again

7. The previous year, what did Hurricane Agnes do in the area?
(a) blew a tree down on top of Dillard's cabin
(b) it missed the area, so it did nothing
(c) dumped enormous amounts of rain
(d) wiped out all the flowers in the area

8. What does Dillard say is the driving force after reproduction in the animal kingdom?
(a) finding food
(b) having a nice place to live
(c) protecting the young
(d) knowing God

9. Ultimately, at the end of the book, what is Dillard's overwhelming feeling?
(a) puzzlement
(b) depression
(c) anger
(d) joy

10. In Chapter 13, the author is beginning to find a balance in her thinking about nature. What is that balance?
(a) a balance between believing nature to be for animals or humans
(b) a balance between believing nature to be good or evil
(c) a balance between believing nature to be either terrible or wonderful
(d) a balance between believing nature to be better than cities or not

11. What do the Eskimos do with the greens in their prey's stomach?
(a) eat them
(b) feed them to their dogs
(c) they never look in the stomach
(d) throw them in the ocean

12. When Richmond loses electricity Dillard says something happened at the governor's mansion. What?
(a) one bulb in the governor's mansion continues to glow
(b) the security alarm quit working
(c) the first floor is flooded
(d) the basement is destroyed

13. When a mosquito bites a snake, what happens?
(a) mosquitoes carry snake blood to other animals
(b) the mosquito dies from the snake blood
(c) nothing, mosquitoes feed on snakes
(d) the mosquito lays its eggs under the scales

14. Where are the answer to #163 going?
(a) to the ocean
(b) to Tinker Creek
(c) to the south
(d) to California

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

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter 10, what does Dillard see as making life easier?

2. When moving towards a muskrat, how does one keep from scaring it?

3. When Dillard saw migrating Canadian geese fly, speeding across the duck pond, what did she think?

4. How much impact on any of the creatures, mountains, or creek around her does the author think she has?

5. Dillard believes that few humans have been as cruel as what, in the natural world?

(see the answer keys)

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