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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Dillard finally reconcile a kind, loving creator with the carnage she observes in the natural world?
(a) by realizing she's not smart enough to understand
(b) by realizing there is no creator
(c) by putting it out of her mind
(d) by reinterpreting the meaning of death

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

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

4. What does Dillard believe the flood shows about nature?
(a) nature doesn't like humans
(b) it's destructive
(c) the effusiveness of creation
(d) nature can't be controlled

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

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

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

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

9. For wild animals, Dillards sees enduring parasitic invasions as what?
(a) something deadly
(b) the cost of life
(c) as a blessing
(d) a way for animals to die

10. What would Dillard term passive pursuit of animals?
(a) going on a camera safari
(b) going to a zoo
(c) watching animals from the bridge over the creek
(d) watching Animal Planet

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

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

13. What does Dillard see as the difference between a parasite and a predator?
(a) nothing they're both bad
(b) the predator is more honest
(c) at least one has a fighting chance when up against a predator
(d) it's easier to pick out the predator

14. How did early man view locusts?
(a) as a visitation from heaven
(b) locusts were thought to be a plague sent by God
(c) as a plague sent by the devil
(d) as the harbringer of a natural disaster

15. How would Dillard like to see death?
(a) as another journey
(b) as a mean part of creation
(c) as something to embrace
(d) as benign

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the author think about the price of fish?

2. What could happen if the caribou migrate out of the Eskimo's range?

3. Why would Dillard say some trees are like body builders?

4. What does Dillard see as the price of life?

5. What are the "horns of the altar?"

(see the answer keys)

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