View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. If you could watch the unfolding through time of every thing that ever existed on Earth, what does Dillard say you would see?
(a) joy
(b) destruction and fear
(c) an endless tempest of beauty
(d) upheaval and violence

2. What does Dillard say is the way to tell winter has arrived?
(a) when you have to make your first fire
(b) when you see the first snowfall
(c) when the creek's water has frozen
(d) you can taste winter's arrival on the air

3. What is figurative seeing?
(a) seeing with the inner eye and looking beyond outward appearances
(b) watching the invisible
(c) closing the eyes and seeing another world
(d) seeing in dreams

4. What does the author believe about acts of physical courage?
(a) they can tire you out
(b) they are energizing
(c) men do them more than women
(d) they are heroic

5. Where does Dillard makes a pilgrimage to every month?
(a) the island that bisects Tinker Creek
(b) the the local church
(c) the small town a few miles away
(d) to visit her mother in another state

Short Answer Questions

1. How do humans insulate themselves from the present, according to the author?

2. When Dillard raps on the goldfish bowl, what does the fish do?

3. What is the literal act of seeing?

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

5. How do ladybugs hibernate?

Short Essay Questions

1. Dillard remembers once seeing migrating Canadian geese fly, speeding across the duck pond which leads her to think what?

2. This book alternately uplifts and depresses the sensitive reader. What did you find uplifting about the first chapter? Depressing?

3. Describe the two ways of seeing, according to Dillard.

4. Dillard spends the entire chapter dealing with the passing of a hurricane. How does the theme of "floods" relate to other parts of the book?

5. What might Dillard's fascination and stories about the praying mantis demonstrate?

6. How does Dillard relate the season, spring, to language?

7. Dillard recalls what a woman recently told her, "'Seem like we're just set down here...and don't nobody know why."' What do you think this saying means?

8. What does Dillard conclude when she attempts to "view" creation from the standpoint of God?

9. What does Dillard mean by the phase, "sinking into her center?" How does she use this technique?

10. Dillard watches a mosquito feed on a copperhead snake. What does she think of the act?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,193 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample