View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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.

2. How did Dillard get into the library in Roanoke late at night?
(a) She hid in the women's room when the door was locked.
(b) The door was never locked.
(c) She had a key.
(d) She climbed in through a window.

3. In Dillard's thoughts, what words stopped Rebbe Shmelke from hearing his teacher?
(a) "The Lord spoke."
(b) "So be it."
(c) "Amen."
(d) "God bless you."

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

5. When Dillard once wrote in a cinder-block cell, what scene did it overlook?
(a) A tar-and-gravel roof.
(b) Mountains.
(c) A strip mall.
(d) Cape Cod bay.

6. What does Dillard's "line of words" do with random pictures in the writer's mind?
(a) Dismisses them.
(b) Dreams of them.
(c) Dissects them out.
(d) Writes them down, word for word.

7. What part of the body does the "line of words" in Chapter 1 invade?
(a) The heart.
(b) The lungs.
(c) The soul.
(d) The brain.

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

9. Who does Dillard say that she believes to be one of the most prolific writers who has ever lived?
(a) William Shakespeare.
(b) James Patterson.
(c) Thomas Mann.
(d) Edgar Allen Poe.

10. To what does Dillard compare writing a book?
(a) Climbing a long ladder.
(b) A reality television show.
(c) Learning to walk via crawling.
(d) Running a marathon.

11. When Dillard is watching symbols move on her monitor, which sends back numbers to her, what is it her job to do?
(a) Stop immediately.
(b) Translate the numbers.
(c) Go for a drive.
(d) Hold her breath.

12. Which author would walk through the hills for seven or eight hours on end without a hint of fatigue?
(a) Emerson.
(b) Dante.
(c) Stevens.
(d) Nietzsche.

13. Who is the main character in a story told by Ernest Thompson Seton?
(a) An Eskimo man.
(b) A Native American woman.
(c) A fisherman.
(d) An Algonquin woman.

14. How long did it take William Faulkner to write "As I Lay Dying"?
(a) Six years.
(b) Six months.
(c) Ten years.
(d) Six weeks.

15. What does Dillard have to say about appealing workplaces for writing?
(a) They are to be avoided.
(b) Bright yellow paint on the walls is best.
(c) The lovelier the scenery, the better.
(d) Avoid drabness at all costs.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. How does Dillard describe the process of writing a book?

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

4. What did Dillard's study carrel in the Hollins College library overlook?

5. 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"?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 553 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample