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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 lived in the senses.
(c) A day spent reading.
(d) A life spent reading.

2. Finish this West African proverb from Chapter 2: "The beginning of wisdom is.."
(a) to get you a roof.
(b) nature.
(c) to open a book.
(d) listening to others.

3. What was Dillard's study on Cape Cod?
(a) The public library.
(b) A former lighthouse.
(c) A small room in her home.
(d) A pine shed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

11. What is needed in the world more than another excellent manuscript, as far as Dillard is concerned?
(a) Honey.
(b) Pollen.
(c) Shoes.
(d) Bees.

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

13. What does Dillard say that the printed word cannot compete with?
(a) Music.
(b) Travel.
(c) The movies.
(d) People.

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

15. Where does the "line of words" go at the end of Chapter 1?
(a) To Venus.
(b) To the sun.
(c) Out past Jupiter.
(d) To Houston, Texas.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. How did Washington writer, Charlie Butts, write fiction in order to gain momentum?

3. When a writer is stuck while writing a book, what does Dillard think he should do?

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

5. Whose wife posed for the Liberty dime?

(see the answer keys)

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