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This test consists of 5 short answer questions and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the author think about fish?

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

3. What makes birds harder to watch than insects?

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

5. What serves as a catalyst to ready the birds for migration?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss "literal" seeing and "figurative" seeing as Dillard uses them. Give examples of each. How do these two terms relate to your life?

Essay Topic 2

One day while hiking, Dillard comes upon a coot, a water bird, notorious for its shyness. Dillard spends a great deal of space writing about her encounter with the coot. Describe the encounter and what Dillard thinks she learned from it.

Essay Topic 3

Up to the second section of chapter eight, Dillard has primarily described details of creation. In the second part of the chapter she moves to trying to understand more about creation, and, as such, moves from logic to mysticism. Discuss the writing she has used to show this shift from observing creation to trying to understand it. What might it mean to say this moves the author from logic to mysticism?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 315 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample