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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What do television and films do to the body's senses, according to Dillard?
(a) They make the writer sense the need to write.
(b) Make connections.
(c) Stimulate them.
(d) Numb them.

2. Jack London maintained that every writer needs a technique, experience, and what else?
(a) An imagination.
(b) A pen.
(c) A certain personality.
(d) A philosophical position.

3. What was Dillard's study on Cape Cod?
(a) A former lighthouse.
(b) A small room in her home.
(c) The public library.
(d) A pine shed.

4. Which book does Dillard say she discovered that she touched every night in the darkened library to find her room?
(a) World's End.
(b) The World Without Us.
(c) It's the End of the World.
(d) The World I Live In.

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. What do experienced writers urge young men and women to learn, according to Chapter 1?

2. In an analogy about a photographer, why did the photographer say he brought the same rejected photograph for judgment every year?

3. When Dillard is watching symbols move on her monitor, which sends back numbers to her, what is it her job to do?

4. Who is the Danish aristocrat mentioned in Chapter 2?

5. As explained by Dillard in Chapter 1, what must be done to a piece of writing after the first draft is finished?

(see the answer key)

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