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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When moving towards a muskrat, how does one keep from scaring it?
(a) move when the muskrat's head is turned away from your direction
(b) lay down and crawl on your belly
(c) sit still and hold your breath
(d) walk in the water

2. What did a Russian botanist discover about locusts?
(a) locusts will eat other insects
(b) locusts breed in the water
(c) locusts have too many babies
(d) locusts are merely grasshoppers under stress

3. In Chapter 10, what does Dillard see as making life easier?
(a) accepting that everything dies
(b) staying in a state of denial
(c) living in the city
(d) a lot of money

4. In this book the author is not only striving to understand the natural world, but to understand this acceptance:
(a) the creator behind that world
(b) the meaning of acceptance
(c) humankind's place in the world
(d) the interplay of life and death

5. Ultimately, what does Dillard say about predators or parasites?
(a) parasites are suicidal
(b) predators get parasites from their food
(c) it's eat or starve no matter who you are
(d) a predator can be infested with a parasite

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

7. What serves as a catalyst to ready the birds for migration?
(a) the leaves turning colors
(b) the fall air
(c) lack of flowers in the landscape
(d) catepillers making cocoons

8. When do Eskimos hunt caribou?
(a) at the end of spring
(b) in the fall
(c) right before summer
(d) at the beginning of winter

9. In Chapter 14, Dillard quotes a fifth century Egyptian mystic as saying what?
(a) fall is the splash of color before the white of winter
(b) winter gives rest, as spring energy
(c) meditate outside and you will know the outside
(d) go and sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything

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

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

12. When ancient Hebrews sacrificed an animal to their god, how did they use the horns?
(a) to cage the animal
(b) they didn't use them
(c) poured blood into the horns
(d) to strenthen the altar for a larger animal

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

14. What does the author think about the price of fish?
(a) fish are free for anyone to gather from the waters
(b) they're a cheap source of protein
(c) they cost more than beef
(d) the price is high due to overfishing

15. What does Dillard see as the price of life?
(a) having to work constantly for food
(b) being eaten by a greater predator
(c) death
(d) lack of control

Short Answer Questions

1. When Richmond loses electricity Dillard says something happened at the governor's mansion. What?

2. How much impact on any of the creatures, mountains, or creek around her does the author think she has?

3. What does Dillard say about the muskrat fur?

4. Dillard is sometimes allowed one brief glimpse of a creature. What does she call these glimpses?

5. Ultimately, at the end of the book, what is Dillard's overwhelming feeling?

(see the answer keys)

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