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

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

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

4. Oftentimes, what part of Dillard's work must be edited out?

5. According to Dillard, what kind of life is a life of sensation?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Dillard asks why anyone would read books with advertising slogans and brand names in them.

Why does Dillard feel this is not a good thing to have in books?

Do you agree with her? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 4, Dillard's Smith-Corona typewriter erupted in smoke and flames during an earthquake. What does the Beckett quote at the beginning of the chapter tell us about Dillard's personality or character? What could the fired-up typewriter be a metaphor for? Why?

Essay Topic 3

Why did a young photographer in Chapter 1 submit the same landscape every year for judgment to the same person, only to be rejected every year? What was the photographer's ultimate goal in his recurring submission? What does having worked long and hard on a particular project lead a creator to believe?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 998 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample