View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

4. What famous author said, "The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon....and at length the middle-aged man concludes to build a wood-shed with them"?
(a) Thomas Mann.
(b) Henry James.
(c) Walt Whitman.
(d) Henry Thoreau.

5. What did an inchworm search for in a panic in Chapter 1?
(a) A way in which to lift its hind legs to its front legs.
(b) A caterpillar.
(c) The next part of a blade of grass it was climbing.
(d) Its front legs.

Short Answer Questions

1. What part of the body does the "line of words" in Chapter 1 invade?

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

3. When Dillard relays a story about a cabdriver singing a boring song, why did the driver sing it twice?

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

5. Which author would walk through the hills for seven or eight hours on end without a hint of fatigue?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 323 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample