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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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 fits himself to the job.
(c) He is adapting himself.
(d) He does not know his limits.

4. What body of water did Dillard write near in Washington State?
(a) Port of Vancouver.
(b) The Columbia River.
(c) Puget Sound.
(d) Strait of Georgia.

5. Who or what will teach someone to write, according to Dillard in Chapter 3?
(a) The blank page.
(b) A fellow writer.
(c) The author.
(d) Opacity.

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

7. Where did Dillard forget about a boiling teakettle and burn it?
(a) A cabin on Puget Sound.
(b) An office in a college.
(c) Her kitchen.
(d) A faculty lounge in a university.

8. What was Dillard's painter neighbor, Glenn, working on for six months in Chapter 6?
(a) Dipping papers into vats of colored oil on water.
(b) Painting over marbleized papers.
(c) Folded sculpture.
(d) Landscapes painted by dripping paint on canvas.

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

10. Who once said about writing, 'Know your own bone'?
(a) Whitman.
(b) Truitt.
(c) Thoreau.
(d) Ibsen.

11. 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) The Well Dressed Man with a Beard.
(b) Poem Written at Morning.
(c) Valley Candle.
(d) Sunday Morning.

12. Referring to a new idea, who said, 'Cheep--and all at once there it is'?
(a) Stevens.
(b) Einstein.
(c) Wilder.
(d) Boehme.

13. What does Dillard say that she believes a writer should aim for when writing?
(a) The wood.
(b) The axe.
(c) The scraps of wood.
(d) The chopping block.

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

15. Who once said that '..his firewood warmed him twice because he labored to cut his own'?
(a) Thoreau.
(b) James.
(c) Joyce.
(d) Whitman.

Short Answer Questions

1. What kept the teakettle that Dillard used in a faculty lounge from whistling?

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

3. What does Dillard say that she thinks happens to something, such as a writing idea, that you do not give up freely and abundantly?

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

5. What did Emily Dickinson love best in her writing?

(see the answer keys)

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