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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. As put by Dillard, what is the vision in a writer's or painter's work?
(a) A series of formal possibilities.
(b) The time and materials needed.
(c) A piece of paper.
(d) The end result of the work.

2. What was the result of Dillard's first attempts at splitting wood in Chapter 3?
(a) Tiny wedges got chopped off.
(b) She cut herself with the axe.
(c) She missed the wood every time.
(d) She split fine logs.

3. In working-class France, what did Dillard say that experienced workers tell an apprentice who gets hurt or tired?
(a) It is the trade entering his body.
(b) He is adapting himself.
(c) He fits himself to the job.
(d) He does not know his limits.

4. What does Dillard say that she thinks happens to something, such as a writing idea, that you do not give up freely and abundantly?
(a) It becomes lost to you.
(b) Someone else will get it.
(c) It will be poorly written.
(d) It becomes better with age.

5. What did Emily Dickinson love best in her writing?
(a) A slant of light.
(b) The glistening peritoneum.
(c) Yo-yo tricks.
(d) The ferns.

6. What does Dillard say that she thinks an artist supposes a live image to possess?
(a) A confused set of lines.
(b) Some technique stolen from him.
(c) A secret to be discovered.
(d) Something he should pretend to know.

7. Why does it make more sense to write one big book rather than a collection of stories or essays, in Dillard's opinion?
(a) It does not take as long to write one big book.
(b) You can fit all you possess into a long project.
(c) A cast of characters is easier to work with.
(d) There is more money to be made with a book.

8. Dillard repeated the phrase, 'It is the grave of Jesus, where he lay' over and over like a song in Chapter 5. What poem is this line from?
(a) Sunday Morning.
(b) The Well Dressed Man with a Beard.
(c) Poem Written at Morning.
(d) Valley Candle.

9. What was Dillard's only physical activity in the one-room log cabin on an empty beach?
(a) Walking a few feet from the bed to the desk.
(b) Walking along the beach at low tide.
(c) Practicing yoga on the beach.
(d) Jogging to her husband's cabin in the evening.

10. Where did Willa Cather write her prairie novels?
(a) Kansas City.
(b) Miami.
(c) Wisconsin.
(d) New York City.

11. Why did Dillard momentarily feel she must quit writing in Chapter 3?
(a) She was not good at it.
(b) She had nothing new to say.
(c) She was addicted to cigarettes.
(d) She was too young to be living at a desk.

12. At the island on Haro Strait, why would a man overboard die within ten minutes?
(a) The whales were numerous.
(b) There were sharks.
(c) The channel made the water unswimmable.
(d) The water was very cold.

13. What is the finished work's relationship to the vision of it, as viewed by Dillard?
(a) Something unchanging compared to something temporal.
(b) Something new compared to an antique.
(c) Well-known passages compared to the vision filled in.
(d) A final draft compared to a second draft.

14. What happened to the Smith-Corona typewriter in Chapter 4?
(a) The rumbling damaged it beyond repair.
(b) It fell from the desk and broke.
(c) The cord sent out sparks.
(d) It erupted with smoke and fire.

15. What did Dillard learn about herself while talking with the sheriff in Chapter 3?
(a) She learned things by writing.
(b) She would one day die.
(c) She didn't know why she avoided writing.
(d) She should be running a ferryboat.

Short Answer Questions

1. Whose drawings and paintings did Dillard believe show his bewilderment and persistence?

2. What does Dillard say that she remembers seeing on the island at Haro Strait that made her weep on the shore in fear?

3. When Dillard left her cabin for home in Chapter 5 during a northeaster, how was she feeling, walking down the beach?

4. What does the impulse to save something good for a better place later signify, according to Dillard?

5. Who wrote, 'He goes because he must, as Galahad went towards the Grail; knowing that for those who can live it, this alone is life'?

(see the answer keys)

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