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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. In "Why I Write," Didion says that the image that played into her story the most in Book of Common Prayer came from when she was at an airport in which country?
(a) Sweden.
(b) Portugal.
(c) Colombia.
(d) Panama.

2. What mandatory class did Didion need to take at Berkeley before she could graduate?
(a) Chaucer.
(b) Hemingway.
(c) Shakespeare.
(d) Milton.

3. In "Why I Write," what does Didion say she "plays by ear" (44)?
(a) Guitar.
(b) Grammar.
(c) Saxophone.
(d) Piano.

4. Who wrote the script for "Hills Like White Elephants" discussed in "Long Distance Runner"?
(a) Didion's husband and Tony Richardson.
(b) Didion and Richardson.
(c) Jack Nicholson and Richardson.
(d) Didion and her husband.

5. In "Telling Stories," what novel does Didion say developed from her notes that began about a man and woman in New York?
(a) A River Runs Through it.
(b) Run River.
(c) A Book of Common Prayer.
(d) The Sacramento River.

Short Answer Questions

1. From whom does Didion say she stole the title "Why I Write"?

2. In "Last Words," what is Hemingway said to have done to his letters after Ford Madox Ford told him to "write a letter thinking of how it would read to posterity"?

3. What did Mary Hemingway allow Carlos Baker to do in his book published after Hemingway's death?

4. In "Telling Stories," what does Didion say the writer of a short story needs to have that the writer of a novel does not?

5. In "Telling Stories," what Hemingway short story does Didion mention as an example of a writer's "absolute control" (54)?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Didion say of Richardson's often contrary behavior?

2. What example does Didion cite as proof that Hemingway did not want his letters to be published after his death in "Last Words"?

3. What character in A Book of Common Prayer developed from an image of the Panama airport at 6 a.m. that stayed in Joan's mind?

4. What does Didion say about the first paragraph of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms in "Last Words"?

5. What examples from writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Didion's own work does she cite as examples of artist superstitions?

6. Where did Didion attend photoshoots in her story "Some Women," and what does she say she noticed about the most successful shoots?

7. What did Didion first think Run River was a story about, and what did it become?

8. In "Why I Write," why does Joan say she writes?

9. What does Joan say she learned to do when writing "When Did Music Come This Way," and what did that story allow her to do after it was complete?

10. Describe the scene from "Long Distance Runner" when Didion and her husband arrive at St. Tropez to pick up their daughter.

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