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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 does Dillard describe as 'a net for catching days' in Chapter 2?
(a) A journal.
(b) A schedule.
(c) Clocks.
(d) Dreams.

2. How did Dillard get into the library in Roanoke late at night?
(a) She had a key.
(b) The door was never locked.
(c) She hid in the women's room when the door was locked.
(d) She climbed in through a window.

3. Finish this West African proverb from Chapter 2: "The beginning of wisdom is.."
(a) listening to others.
(b) to get you a roof.
(c) to open a book.
(d) nature.

4. What part of the body does the "line of words" in Chapter 1 invade?
(a) The heart.
(b) The soul.
(c) The brain.
(d) The lungs.

5. What is needed in the world more than another excellent manuscript, as far as Dillard is concerned?
(a) Pollen.
(b) Shoes.
(c) Bees.
(d) Honey.

Short Answer Questions

1. Saint-Pol-Roux used to hang what sign on his door while he slept?

2. When Dillard wrote in Roanoke, Virginia, what did she long for upon coming home after writing?

3. Which religious sect did Dillard read about in the Virginia library?

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Dillard describes the scenes from her desk at the library in Virginia. Why does she say these scenes are detrimental to her work?

3. Describe the inside of Dillard's study on Cape Cod.

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

5. How does Dillard describe the line of words as being one's own heart?

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

7. When Dillard glanced in the daylight at one of the stacks of books she regularly touched to feel her way at night, what surprised her?

8. Why did a ritual slaughterer bid goodbye to his wife and children every morning as if it were his last, in Chapter 1?

9. What, outside Dillard's library window, proved to cause the most distraction to her work?

10. 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"?

(see the answer keys)

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