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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was the result of Dillard's first attempts at splitting wood in Chapter 3?
(a) She missed the wood every time.
(b) Tiny wedges got chopped off.
(c) She split fine logs.
(d) She cut herself with the axe.

2. What was Dillard's only physical activity in the one-room log cabin on an empty beach?
(a) Practicing yoga on the beach.
(b) Jogging to her husband's cabin in the evening.
(c) Walking a few feet from the bed to the desk.
(d) Walking along the beach at low tide.

3. What did Dillard learn about herself while talking with the sheriff in Chapter 3?
(a) She didn't know why she avoided writing.
(b) She learned things by writing.
(c) She would one day die.
(d) She should be running a ferryboat.

4. Who wrote, 'He goes because he must, as Galahad went towards the Grail; knowing that for those who can live it, this alone is life'?
(a) Albert Einstein.
(b) Henry Thoreau.
(c) Evelyn Underhill.
(d) Wallace Stevens.

5. How do Tibetan lamas keep from floating away, as described in Chapter 5?
(a) They wear chains.
(b) They swim with the current.
(c) They walk very slowly.
(d) The meditate towards the destination.

6. What was Dillard's painter neighbor, Glenn, working on for six months in Chapter 6?
(a) Folded sculpture.
(b) Dipping papers into vats of colored oil on water.
(c) Painting over marbleized papers.
(d) Landscapes painted by dripping paint on canvas.

7. Where, in Washington State, did Dillard beg a cabin in which to write?
(a) Boundary Pass.
(b) On Snake River.
(c) On Herron Island.
(d) On Haro Strait.

8. What two problems does Dillard say she feels that a writer must solve when writing a book?
(a) Where is my plot? and, How do I end this?
(b) Can it be done? and, Can I do it?
(c) Can I write each sentence? and, Can I string them together?
(d) Can I keep track of characters? and, What do I name them?

9. When Dillard lacked sufficient energy for writing one morning in Chapter 3, what does she say she did to try and get it?
(a) Ran a few miles and ate.
(b) Smoked and drank coffee.
(c) Played the recorder.
(d) Split some wood and smoked.

10. What does Dillard say that she thinks happens to something, such as a writing idea, that you do not give up freely and abundantly?
(a) It will be poorly written.
(b) Someone else will get it.
(c) It becomes lost to you.
(d) It becomes better with age.

11. What does the novel as a form usually represent, according to Dillard?
(a) History.
(b) Poetry.
(c) Society.
(d) Non-commericialism.

12. Why did Dillard write that 'People should not feed moralistic animals'?
(a) Her cat pushed its empty food bowl around.
(b) Her cat stretched out and turned its back to her.
(c) Her dog trotted around the room, head up in the air.
(d) Her dog looked at her and rolled its eyes.

13. What, according to Dillard, is the first thing a writer does that is similar to what a painter does?
(a) Brings the vision of the work to light.
(b) Shapes the vision of the work.
(c) Shapes a vision of the world.
(d) Ignores the first faint marks on the canvas or page.

14. What does the impulse to save something good for a better place later signify, according to Dillard?
(a) It should be used now.
(b) It should be used later.
(c) It should be forgotten.
(d) It should be hoarded.

15. Thornton Wilder cited an unnamed writer of sonnets as saying only one line drops from where?
(a) The ceiling.
(b) A chicken.
(c) A hammer.
(d) A whisper in the ear.

Short Answer Questions

1. What made the teakettle in the faculty lounge look so interesting in Chapter 3?

2. What does Dillard say she believes poets and novelists like?

3. What did a Dinka believe his own memories and daydreams to be?

4. Whose drawings and paintings did Dillard believe show his bewilderment and persistence?

5. Who once said about writing, 'Know your own bone'?

(see the answer keys)

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