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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. How long did it take William Faulkner to write "As I Lay Dying"?
(a) Six years.
(b) Six weeks.
(c) Six months.
(d) Ten years.

2. In Dillard's thoughts, what words stopped Rebbe Shmelke from hearing his teacher?
(a) "The Lord spoke."
(b) "Amen."
(c) "God bless you."
(d) "So be it."

3. When Dillard is watching symbols move on her monitor, which sends back numbers to her, what is it her job to do?
(a) Translate the numbers.
(b) Stop immediately.
(c) Hold her breath.
(d) Go for a drive.

4. When Dillard relays a story about a cabdriver singing a boring song, why did the driver sing it twice?
(a) It was a throw-away song.
(b) It had taken him a long time to get it right.
(c) He was stalling for time.
(d) He wanted to bore the author.

5. Which religious sect did Dillard read about in the Virginia library?
(a) Catholicism.
(b) Hasidism.
(c) Islam.
(d) Hinduism.

Short Answer Questions

1. What book was Dillard working on in Roanoke, Virginia?

2. What does Dillard claim as being a good life?

3. In an analogy about a photographer, why did the photographer say he brought the same rejected photograph for judgment every year?

4. Under what circumstances did Rabbi Uri of Strelisk tell his family to dispose of his manuscripts?

5. Whose wife posed for the Liberty dime?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Why did the inchworm in Dillard's story keep asking itself, "What! No further"?

3. Dillard vows to remember her difficulties writing in Roanoke, Virginia. Why is this ironic?

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

5. What is the most appealing schedule that Dillard says she knows?

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

7. When the cab driver in New York sang songs with Dillard, why did he sing one dull song twice?

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

9. When Dillard heard a June bug bumping up against the carrel window one night, what did the noise bring her to realize?

10. In Chapter 1, what does Dillard say she thinks of as the usual reasons for an author getting stuck in a book?

(see the answer keys)

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