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. What does the animal in question #1 do to to get Dillard's attention?
(a) jumps in through the open window and climbs on Dillard's chest
(b) meows loudly
(c) bats her leg with his paw
(d) knocks her glasses off onto the floor

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

3. How did Radford, Virginia decide to control their starling problem?
(a) bringing in a population of Maine bird cats
(b) by spraying them with foam, so they would die of exposure
(c) putting out poisoned seed
(d) enclosing large nets around their area

4. What does Dillard say happens the moment you are aware of the present?
(a) you lose it
(b) it freezes
(c) it becomes the past
(d) it no longer matters

5. Why do the male praying mantis come near the female?
(a) he has a chemical in his abdomen that encourages him
(b) the female is bigger and stronger and makes him
(c) the females have a long, whip-like appendage that grabs the male
(d) the male is born to be the mate of a certain femal

Short Answer Questions

1. How do praying mantises mate?

2. When Dillard moves from describing details of creation to trying to understand more about creation what is she doing?

3. Dillard opens this first chapter remembering this animal.

4. How do mice reach the grain at the top of a stalk?

5. What does the author believe about acts of physical courage?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Dillard's thoughts as she looks over the creek from the bridge when it was flooded.

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

3. Part of Dillard's struggle in her observation of the natural world is how much violence she seems to encounter. How does she relate this to the Hebrew altar?

4. Why do you think the story about the coot might be significant?

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

6. What is the story that Dillard relates about the Polyphemus moth and how does it show a possible origin of her attitude towards creatures?

7. What is the correlation Dillard sees between time and the search for God?

8. 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?

9. How does Dillard tie in Moses with her observations at Tinker Creek?

10. How does Dillard relate parasites to her view of life?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,349 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample