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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 happened when Carrie sells to a paperback publisher?
(a) The paperback publisher offers King an advance of $400,000.
(b) The book sells for $400,000, of which King received one third.
(c) The paperback publisher rejects the initial version of the book and demanded revisions.
(d) King receives $200,000 and his life changes forever.

2. Why does King throw the story Carrie in the trash can?
(a) Because his wife hates the story.
(b) Because he doesn't like the main character Carrie.
(c) Because he feels he doesn't know enough about the events that went on in a girl's locker room.
(d) Because he is too busy to continue.

3. On one of their expeditions, King and his brother meet an unexpected enemy. What is this enemy?
(a) A bear.
(b) Poison ivy.
(c) A black and white skunk.
(d) A snake.

4. When King's principal hears about King's episode with the newspaper, what does he suggest?
(a) He tells him to get a job with a local paper as a sports writer.
(b) He tells him to get a job to keep him busy.
(c) He encourages King to quit writing.
(d) He tells him to stay out of trouble in the future.

5. To which substance is King first addicted as a young man?
(a) Cocaine.
(b) Alcohol.
(c) Marijuana.
(d) Prescription pain-killers.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to King, what are two reasons to write?

2. How does King describe the image discussed in chapter two?

3. Why does it prove valuable to King to work for a local newspaper?

4. How does his writing help King financially?

5. After Tabitha King's intervention in King's addictions, he makes some changes in his life. What change does he make in his writing life?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are some of the aspects of writing that King is not going to emphasize in the chapter, What Writing Is?

2. How did King begin his career as a writer?

3. King opens the chapter, What Writing Is, with an image. What is the image and how is it described? In what ways is this image different from other images presented in books? What is King's motive in doing this? Do you think this is an effective way to allow the reader to see the scene? Why or why not?

4. In what ways is the rabbit on the table of symbol of King's belief in magic and telepathy? Explain in your own words.

5. As a child, King had many chronic ear and throat infections. How might these illnesses lead King to writing?

6. What conclusions can you draw from King's comparison of writing as a career versus writing as a passion? Explain in your own words.

7. When King asks the writer to accept 'the magic of writing, but to take it seriously', what is he saying?

8. Why does King want his readers to put his book down if they are unable to accept that writing is magic?

9. In what way is the book, On Writing, to be different from King's usual work?

10. In a short paper, summarize the main points of King's life as an author.

(see the answer keys)

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