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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What written advice was found that Michelangelo had left for his apprentice?
(a) Paint, Antonio...and get it done now.
(b) Use your ideas immediately, Antonio.
(c) Draw, Antonio..and do not waste time.
(d) Antonio, do as I have done.

3. Why was Dillard's finger in pain at times as she wrote in the university office in Virginia?
(a) She had a clothespin stuck to her finger until the water boiled.
(b) Her fingers cramped up from writing for so long.
(c) She got paper cuts.
(d) She spilled hot water on her fingers once in a while.

4. How long does the twilight linger on the island on Haro Strait in June and July?
(a) Until nearly midnight.
(b) Until nine at night.
(c) Until dawn.
(d) Until seven p.m.

5. What damage did the Smith-Corona typewriter do in Chapter 4?
(a) The table the typewriter was on collapsed.
(b) The rug got damaged.
(c) The curtains were set on fire.
(d) The writer's shirt was burned.

6. 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) Jogging to her husband's cabin in the evening.
(c) Practicing yoga on the beach.
(d) Walking along the beach at low tide.

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) You can fit all you possess into a long project.
(b) It does not take as long to write one big book.
(c) There is more money to be made with a book.
(d) A cast of characters is easier to work with.

8. 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) Someone else will get it.
(b) It will be poorly written.
(c) It becomes better with age.
(d) It becomes lost to you.

9. What did a Dinka believe his own memories and daydreams to be?
(a) An extension of himself.
(b) The meaning of life.
(c) External to himself.
(d) Psychologically important.

10. 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) Bright.
(b) Clunky.
(c) Rhythmical.
(d) Powerful.

11. Who did Dillard's neighbor, Glenn, tell her about when she returned to the island in late June?
(a) Ferrar Fenton.
(b) Bill Ferrar.
(c) Nicholas Ferrar.
(d) Ferrar Burn.

12. What is a writer compared to in Chapter 5?
(a) A boxer.
(b) A tiger trainer.
(c) An alligator wrestler.
(d) A moth flying into a flame.

13. 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.

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

15. How do Tibetan lamas keep from floating away, as described in Chapter 5?
(a) The meditate towards the destination.
(b) They wear chains.
(c) They walk very slowly.
(d) They swim with the current.

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. Who once said that '..his firewood warmed him twice because he labored to cut his own'?

4. What made the teakettle in the faculty lounge look so interesting in Chapter 3?

5. What was Dillard's painter neighbor, Glenn, working on for six months in Chapter 6?

(see the answer keys)

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