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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Who did Dillard see standing at the chess table in the Roanoke library one night?
(a) The head librarian.
(b) Her phantom opponent.
(c) The librarian's wife.
(d) A baby in a diaper.

3. How many hours of sleep would Jack London usually get?
(a) Two.
(b) Four.
(c) Eight.
(d) Seven.

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

5. What ended the chess game for Dillard in Chapter 2?
(a) The baby went home.
(b) She finished writing her book.
(c) The custodian wished to stop playing.
(d) The opponent scrambled the board up completely.

6. Under what circumstances did Rabbi Uri of Strelisk tell his family to dispose of his manuscripts?
(a) If there was a risk of fire.
(b) If he should die on his way to prayers.
(c) If writing became the death of him.
(d) If praying should kill him.

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

8. What did Wallace Stevens dictate to his secretary?
(a) Poetry.
(b) Orders for lunch.
(c) Letters.
(d) Editorial essays.

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

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

11. How did Washington writer, Charlie Butts, write fiction in order to gain momentum?
(a) He repeatedly left the house and wrote quickly upon return.
(b) He did not rise from his chair until writing 10 pages.
(c) He wrote while running mindless errands.
(d) He left every last written page in the middle of a sentence.

12. What sport did Dillard play with a boys' music camp?
(a) Soccer.
(b) Flag Football.
(c) Basketball.
(d) Softball.

13. Dillard believes that some writers weaken their resolve to discard parts of their work. Why?
(a) It is too much work.
(b) People have told them it is too good to discard.
(c) The words have come to have a necessary quality.
(d) They believe every word they write is too important to discard.

14. What does Dillard compare writing to in the first paragraph of the book?
(a) An ordeal to be probed.
(b) A path to pick through.
(c) Laying out a line of words.
(d) A dead end.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How long did it take William Faulkner to write "As I Lay Dying"?

2. Where does Dillard say she wound up putting her pen drawing in Chapter 2?

3. What was knocking on the carrel window as Dillard worked in Roanoke?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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