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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What happened in Bridgeport, Connecticut one morning in April, 1987?

3. Who is the main character in a story told by Ernest Thompson Seton?

4. Where does Dillard say she wound up putting her pen drawing in Chapter 2?

5. What does Dillard say that the printed word cannot compete with?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. 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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is meant by Thoreau's statement to "know your own bone"? How is this advice helpful to a writer?

Essay Topic 2

In working-class France, when an apprentice was hurt, the more experienced worker told him that "it is the trade entering his body." What is meant by this statement? How can art or creativity enter the body? How must a writer accommodate herself to the writing?

Essay Topic 3

Dillard states that "Appealing workplaces are to be avoided."

1. Why might this be true?

2. How does Dillard know this to be true for her?

3. What should a writer's workplace consist of, and why?

(see the answer keys)

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