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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did Dillard find herself doing in the rare book room nearly every day for about two weeks?
(a) Looking for rare books on chess.
(b) Writing notes to a chess player.
(c) Spying on the head librarian.
(d) Playing chess with an unknown opponent.

2. What famous author said, "The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon....and at length the middle-aged man concludes to build a wood-shed with them"?
(a) Henry James.
(b) Walt Whitman.
(c) Henry Thoreau.
(d) Thomas Mann.

3. Under what circumstances did Rabbi Uri of Strelisk tell his family to dispose of his manuscripts?
(a) If writing became the death of him.
(b) If there was a risk of fire.
(c) If he should die on his way to prayers.
(d) If praying should kill him.

4. What had Dillard forgotten all about as she worked on a Fourth-of-July night?
(a) Where she was in her writing.
(b) Eating dinner.
(c) The rest of the world.
(d) Her books.

5. What does Dillard's "line of words" do with random pictures in the writer's mind?
(a) Dissects them out.
(b) Writes them down, word for word.
(c) Dreams of them.
(d) Dismisses them.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Dillard say that she makes a pen drawing of in Chapter 2?

2. What does Dillard say that she feels a writer must do about feeling one's work in progress is either magnificent or abominable?

3. When Dillard relays a story about a cabdriver singing a boring song, why did the driver sing it twice?

4. When Dillard once wrote in a cinder-block cell, what scene did it overlook?

5. What is needed in the world more than another excellent manuscript, as far as Dillard is concerned?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Dillard say that she made a pen drawing of the scenes outside her library window?

2. Why does Dillard feel that an appealing workplace for a writer should be avoided?

3. Why does Dillard believe a writer often wants to refrain from throwing away the beginnings of the work she has created?

4. Why does Dillard believe that putting together a book is interesting and exhilarating?

5. What is the meaning of Thoreau's note that "The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or perchance a palace or temple on the earth, and at length the middle-aged man concludes to build a wood-shed with them"?

6. When Dillard was working in the library at night, how did she find her way around in the dark?

7. How is the line of Dillard's words likened to a hammer in Chapter 1?

8. What decision did Dillard make to finally shut herself off from all distractions at the library carrel?

9. Why is 'the path' of the line of writing, as described in Chapter 1 by Dillard, not to be considered the actual work?

10. How does Dillard say that she defines the meaning of schedules, in Chapter 2?

(see the answer keys)

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