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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. When Dillard wrote in Roanoke, Virginia, what did she long for upon coming home after writing?
(a) A tolerant giant to soothe her.
(b) Sleeping till noon.
(c) A dreamless sleep.
(d) Cigarettes and coffee.

3. What does Dillard say that she feels a writer must do about feeling one's work in progress is either magnificent or abominable?
(a) Celebrate or cry.
(b) Ask for help from readers.
(c) Ignore it and not indulge in the feeling.
(d) Get the work critiqued.

4. Which religious sect did Dillard read about in the Virginia library?
(a) Catholicism.
(b) Hasidism.
(c) Islam.
(d) Hinduism.

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

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

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

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

9. What does Dillard say that she makes a pen drawing of in Chapter 2?
(a) The scenery outside her study carrel.
(b) People pulling into the parking lot.
(c) Snapping turtles.
(d) Cows on a hilltop.

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

11. Saint-Pol-Roux used to hang what sign on his door while he slept?
(a) "Resting is writing."
(b) "Dream in progress."
(c) "Do not disturb."
(d) "The poet is working."

12. Which author would only write poetry when he was '...rather out of health'?
(a) Osip Mandelstam.
(b) Jack London.
(c) A.E. Housman.
(d) Wallace Stevens.

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

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

15. In the life of a Danish aristocrat mentioned in Chapter 2, what did he do for most of the day?
(a) Napped.
(b) Swam.
(c) Hunted.
(d) Ate.

Short Answer Questions

1. Under what circumstances did Rabbi Uri of Strelisk tell his family to dispose of his manuscripts?

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

3. Who did Dillard see standing at the chess table in the Roanoke library one night?

4. What had Dillard forgotten all about as she worked on a Fourth-of-July night?

5. What did Dillard do one night in the rare book room of the Virginia library?

(see the answer keys)

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