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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When Richmond loses electricity Dillard says something happened at the governor's mansion. What?
(a) the first floor is flooded
(b) the security alarm quit working
(c) one bulb in the governor's mansion continues to glow
(d) the basement is destroyed

2. What is the other type of poisonous snake besides the answer in #139, that lives around the creek area?
(a) side winder
(b) cotton mouth
(c) coral snake
(d) timber rattler

3. How does Dillard finally reconcile a kind, loving creator with the carnage she observes in the natural world?
(a) by reinterpreting the meaning of death
(b) by realizing she's not smart enough to understand
(c) by realizing there is no creator
(d) by putting it out of her mind

4. What has Dillard decided is the meaning of death?
(a) it must happen or the earth could not sustain everything
(b) a journey to a far land
(c) one merely joins the earth at death
(d) a way to join the creator

5. What does Dillard say about the muskrat fur?
(a) they are the most popular fur animal in North America
(b) it's thin and of little use
(c) it's smelly when wet
(d) it tends to be spotty

6. The balance enables her to think about the beauty without doing what?
(a) making all of nature bad
(b) wanting to move to a large city and never be in nature again
(c) constantly remember the aspects of nature which she finds ugly
(d) making all of nature good

7. In Chapter 13, Dillard spies a snake. What kind is it?
(a) a coral snake
(b) a brown water snake
(c) a black snake
(d) a copperhead

8. What does Dillard believe about the death of the self?
(a) it is a part of life
(b) it is painless
(c) it would take a lifetime
(d) it is a type of transformation

9. What could happen if the caribou migrate out of the Eskimo's range?
(a) they won't get culled and will overpopulate
(b) remote Eskimo tribes can starve
(c) the polar bears will follow the herds
(d) the Eskimos won't have enough fur for coats

10. When Dillard comes upon a rooting acorn, she imagines what?
(a) reaching down to root and its shoot springing towards the heavens
(b) a giant oak, two hundred years from then
(c) the acorn burying itself to come to life in the spring
(d) an squirrel grabbing the acorn and ending its fragile life

11. What do the Eskimos do with the greens in their prey's stomach?
(a) throw them in the ocean
(b) eat them
(c) feed them to their dogs
(d) they never look in the stomach

12. What does the term the term "northing" mean?
(a) someone who lives near the artic circle
(b) types of birds that don't migrate
(c) the name the Eskimoes use for themselves
(d) denotes traveling in a northerly direction

13. Dillard says if nature is not monstrous, then why does it appear that way to humans?
(a) humans can't see the big picture
(b) humans see only the bad
(c) it is human's emotional response to nature's illusory horrors
(d) nature is logical, though a logic humans can't comprehend

14. What does Dillard say is the driving force after reproduction in the animal kingdom?
(a) finding food
(b) knowing God
(c) having a nice place to live
(d) protecting the young

15. How large might a root system for winter rye grass plant grow?
(a) 65 miles of roots and 2,000 miles of root hairs
(b) a shallow system above ground spread for 15 acres
(c) one root that grows straight down for 100 yards
(d) 378 miles of roots and 6,000 miles of root hairs

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the "Principle of Indeterminacy?"

2. What does Dillard believe is destroyed in the flood?

3. Ultimately, what does Dillard say about predators or parasites?

4. When Dillard becomes motionless in watching for a muskrat, what does she do?

5. At the end of the book, Dillard walks with two words in her mind. What are they?

(see the answer keys)

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