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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. In Dillard's experience, what always wins over the vision being forgotten?
(a) An imaginary object.
(b) The set of mental relationships.
(c) The work's intellectual structure.
(d) The page.

3. How did Dillard's sentence ('He led him into the water') from the book she was working on during a northeaster sound to her?
(a) Powerful.
(b) Rhythmical.
(c) Clunky.
(d) Bright.

4. What did Dillard do when she was upstairs in a house and she felt a tremor under her feet in Chapter 4?
(a) Nothing; she was used to earthquakes.
(b) She collected her writing to keep it from being damaged.
(c) She went downstairs in case the stairway collapsed.
(d) She called the emergency phone number.

5. What does Dillard say that she remembers seeing on the island at Haro Strait that made her weep on the shore in fear?
(a) The island beach dropping to the ocean floor suddenly.
(b) A man out in a rowboat at night.
(c) The sea in a winter storm.
(d) A fire on Stuart Island.

6. What does Dillard say she believes poets and novelists like?
(a) Books about writing.
(b) The thought of themselves as writers.
(c) Writers from the nineteenth century.
(d) Poems and novels.

7. 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'?
(a) Wallace Stevens.
(b) Evelyn Underhill.
(c) Albert Einstein.
(d) Henry Thoreau.

8. How did a well-known writer respond to a student in Chapter 5 who asked if he could be a writer?
(a) Have you taken my course?
(b) What do you know about the world?
(c) Do you like sentences?
(d) Do you have imagination?

9. What does Dillard say that she believes may well be a writer's only firsthand experience?
(a) Friendships.
(b) Travel.
(c) Childhood.
(d) College.

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

11. What kept the teakettle that Dillard used in a faculty lounge from whistling?
(a) An aluminum lid jammed over its mouth.
(b) The mouth of the kettle was always kept open.
(c) It was not a whistling teakettle.
(d) It was an electric kettle.

12. Whose drawings and paintings did Dillard believe show his bewilderment and persistence?
(a) Giacometti.
(b) Gaugan.
(c) Rousseau.
(d) Picasso.

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

14. What did Dillard notice most in the Washington cabin she wrote in?
(a) The cold.
(b) The quiet.
(c) The beauty.
(d) The view.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Referring to a new idea, who said, 'Cheep--and all at once there it is'?

2. What passage was Dillard working on in the cabin on Puget Sound while a northeaster was blowing?

3. What did Dillard learn about herself while talking with the sheriff in Chapter 3?

4. Who did Dillard get a visit from in Chapter 3 that was eye-awakening for her?

5. Who watched Dillard chop wood every morning in Washington?

(see the answer keys)

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