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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 2.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What happened in Bridgeport, Connecticut one morning in April, 1987?
(a) The author sustained a hairline fracture.
(b) A building collapsed.
(c) A Rabbi went to prayers.
(d) A writer was killed.

2. Finish this West African proverb from Chapter 2: "The beginning of wisdom is.."
(a) listening to others.
(b) to get you a roof.
(c) nature.
(d) to open a book.

3. When Dillard relays a story about a cabdriver singing a boring song, why did the driver sing it twice?
(a) It was a throw-away song.
(b) He wanted to bore the author.
(c) It had taken him a long time to get it right.
(d) He was stalling for time.

4. What do experienced writers urge young men and women to learn, according to Chapter 1?
(a) Word definitions.
(b) Shakesperian plays.
(c) How to spell.
(d) A useful trade.

5. When Dillard wrote in Roanoke, Virginia, what did she long for upon coming home after writing?
(a) Sleeping till noon.
(b) A tolerant giant to soothe her.
(c) A dreamless sleep.
(d) Cigarettes and coffee.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Washington writer, Charlie Butts, write fiction in order to gain momentum?

2. Who did Dillard see standing at the chess table in the Roanoke library one night?

3. What does Dillard compare writing to in the first paragraph of the book?

4. Where does Dillard say she wound up putting her pen drawing in Chapter 2?

5. Where does the "line of words" go at the end of Chapter 1?

(see the answer key)

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