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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How do mice reach the grain at the top of a stalk?
(a) they climb a tree and jump onto the stalk
(b) they wait for the farmer to cut the field
(c) they climb the stalk on the back of other mice
(d) mice chew wheat stems piece by piece

2. Dillard writes that she is an avid collector of what?
(a) strange insects
(b) snake skins
(c) facts and ideas
(d) feathers

3. Dillard wrote, "the present is fleet." What did she mean by this statement?
(a) the present goes by so quick one can barely glimpse it
(b) there is no present
(c) the present is the future
(d) the present is like a group of ships

4. How much of life which has ever been created, is living at the present time?
(a) 80 percent of all life ever created still exist
(b) about ten percent
(c) around 45 percent
(d) about half

5. How does Dillard believe the seeking of God takes place?
(a) Singing in the shower
(b) the seeking of God is a continuous loop, which never ends
(c) God is in nature
(d) God is everywhere but the best place to seek is in church

6. After she examines the snake skin closely, what does she figure out?
(a) it was alive
(b) it was not real
(c) she realizes that the snake had turned parts of the skin inside out, making it appear as though the skin is in a knot
(d) it was not a snake but a long, skinny lizard

7. Before a baby can distinguish objects, what kind does it prefer?
(a) ones that have moving parts
(b) ones that sparkle and shine
(c) ones that have bright colors
(d) complex designs over simple ones

8. How long can a horsehair worm grow?
(a) up to five feet long
(b) three yards
(c) ten to twelve feet
(d) lengths of up to three feet

9. Thinking about God and nature, what does Dillard come to believe is possible?
(a) God was sleeping and messed up some of nature
(b) nature has created God
(c) God has created much, if not all, of creation in jest
(d) nature is a God unto itself

10. In Chapter 4 what does Dillard use for controlling garden insects?
(a) bats
(b) praying mantises
(c) ladybugs
(d) frogs

11. How does the author say one can obtain "unself-conscious state?"
(a) through intense exercise
(b) through desperate illness
(c) through meditation
(d) pure devotion to whatever one is doing at the moment

12. Dillard says the agnostic asks who created the universe. What does a believer ask?
(a) why am I in the universe
(b) who is God
(c) what role does man play
(d) why was the universe created

13. Dillard says that a particular object remains unseen until what happens?
(a) one's attention is focused on it
(b) a light is turned on
(c) the name of the object is known
(d) it moves

14. How are ladybugs shipped to gardeners?
(a) captured in nets and sedated with alcohol
(b) the hibernating bugs are packed in boxes of pine cones
(c) they are packed in soil and water
(d) they are shipped in the spring, the nests are shipped in one piece

15. What is Dillard illustrating in her story about the Polyphemus moth from her childhood?
(a) kids are cruel
(b) she has a good memory
(c) moths have to spread their weeks when born
(d) the indifference humans often exhibit towards the natural world

Short Answer Questions

1. Dillard believes that, with indifference, nature hides what?

2. What does Dillard find out when she takes her first course in French?

3. Dillard believes that "weather overlaps" which causes what?

4. What sport does the author play come spring?

5. What causes most insects' behavior?

(see the answer keys)

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