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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 3.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What animal, according to Dillard, is an analogy for characters in a writer's book "taking over"?
(a) A shark.
(b) The sea star.
(c) The caterpillar.
(d) The lion.

2. Dillard refers to writing as changing "..from an expression of your notions to an epistemological tool." What does epistemological mean?
(a) Greek knowledge.
(b) Surgical incision of the perineum during childbirth.
(c) Bacterial DNA that is extrachromosomal.
(d) A philosophy concerned with the nature and origin of knowledge.

3. Who said a long poem takes between five and ten years to write?
(a) Walt Whitman.
(b) Emily Dickinson.
(c) John Berryman.
(d) Maya Angelou.

4. What does Dillard claim as being a good life?
(a) Living as a Danish aristocrat.
(b) A life spent reading.
(c) A life lived in the senses.
(d) A day spent reading.

5. What question does Dillard say a writer must ask when considering random scenes that come to mind?
(a) How many scenes do I need to write?
(b) Should I write everything I think of?
(c) Is writing the same as film exposure?
(d) Do I want to expose these scenes to the light?

Short Answer Questions

1. How many hours of sleep would Jack London usually get?

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

3. Saint-Pol-Roux used to hang what sign on his door while he slept?

4. In Dillard's thoughts, what words stopped Rebbe Shmelke from hearing his teacher?

5. Whose poetry did Dillard usually read aloud when on a break?

(see the answer key)

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