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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which author would only write poetry when he was '...rather out of health'?
(a) Jack London.
(b) A.E. Housman.
(c) Osip Mandelstam.
(d) Wallace Stevens.

2. In the life of a Danish aristocrat mentioned in Chapter 2, what did he do for most of the day?
(a) Hunted.
(b) Napped.
(c) Ate.
(d) Swam.

3. What was knocking on the carrel window as Dillard worked in Roanoke?
(a) Mosquitos.
(b) A bat.
(c) Rain.
(d) A June bug.

4. What animal, according to Dillard, is an analogy for characters in a writer's book "taking over"?
(a) The lion.
(b) A shark.
(c) The caterpillar.
(d) The sea star.

5. Who is the main character in a story told by Ernest Thompson Seton?
(a) An Algonquin woman.
(b) A fisherman.
(c) An Eskimo man.
(d) A Native American woman.

Short Answer Questions

1. To what does Dillard compare writing a book?

2. How does Dillard describe the process of writing a book?

3. When Dillard once wrote in a cinder-block cell, what scene did it overlook?

4. Where does Dillard say she wound up putting her pen drawing in Chapter 2?

5. Finish this West African proverb from Chapter 2: "The beginning of wisdom is.."

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Dillard say that she defines the meaning of schedules, in Chapter 2?

2. How does Dillard describe the way in which a writer might start the process of writing a book?

3. What decision did Dillard make to finally shut herself off from all distractions at the library carrel?

4. How does Dillard describe the line of words as being one's own heart?

5. When Dillard was working in the library at night, how did she find her way around in the dark?

6. When the cab driver in New York sang songs with Dillard, why did he sing one dull song twice?

7. When Dillard glanced in the daylight at one of the stacks of books she regularly touched to feel her way at night, what surprised her?

8. Why does Dillard say that she made a pen drawing of the scenes outside her library window?

9. What is the most appealing schedule that Dillard says she knows?

10. Why did a ritual slaughterer bid goodbye to his wife and children every morning as if it were his last, in Chapter 1?

(see the answer keys)

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