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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the title of the Jack London book mentioned in Chapter 2?
(a) The Iron Heel.
(b) White Fang.
(c) The Call of the Wild.
(d) The Sea-Wolf.

2. As explained by Dillard in Chapter 1, what must be done to a piece of writing after the first draft is finished?
(a) Nothing; it is done.
(b) Delete just a few sentences.
(c) You must strike it with a hammer.
(d) It must be mercilessly edited.

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

4. In the life of a Danish aristocrat mentioned in Chapter 2, what did he do for most of the day?
(a) Swam.
(b) Ate.
(c) Napped.
(d) Hunted.

5. How does Dillard describe the process of writing a book?
(a) "It is life at its most free."
(b) "It is a dreamlike task."
(c) "It is something to avoid at all costs."
(d) "It is boring and difficult."

Short Answer Questions

1. Oftentimes, what part of Dillard's work must be edited out?

2. According to Dillard, what kind of life is a life of sensation?

3. What do television and films do to the body's senses, according to Dillard?

4. Which insect is discussed in the book as part of an entomological experiment?

5. Who once said, "Which is the work in which he hasn't surrendered, under dire difficulty, the best thing he meant to have kept"?

(see the answer key)

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