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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. How long did it take William Faulkner to write "As I Lay Dying"?
(a) Ten years.
(b) Six months.
(c) Six weeks.
(d) Six years.

2. When Dillard wrote in Roanoke, Virginia, what did she long for upon coming home after writing?
(a) A dreamless sleep.
(b) Sleeping till noon.
(c) A tolerant giant to soothe her.
(d) Cigarettes and coffee.

3. What does Dillard compare writing to in the first paragraph of the book?
(a) An ordeal to be probed.
(b) Laying out a line of words.
(c) A dead end.
(d) A path to pick through.

4. What question does Dillard say a writer must ask when considering random scenes that come to mind?
(a) How many scenes do I need to write?
(b) Should I write everything I think of?
(c) Do I want to expose these scenes to the light?
(d) Is writing the same as film exposure?

5. What part of the body does the "line of words" in Chapter 1 invade?
(a) The soul.
(b) The lungs.
(c) The heart.
(d) The brain.

Short Answer Questions

1. What animal, according to Dillard, is an analogy for characters in a writer's book "taking over"?

2. What sport did Dillard play with a boys' music camp?

3. Dillard believes that some writers weaken their resolve to discard parts of their work. Why?

4. According to Dillard, how do painters work as opposed to writers?

5. In Dillard's thoughts, what words stopped Rebbe Shmelke from hearing his teacher?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Dillard heard a June bug bumping up against the carrel window one night, what did the noise bring her to realize?

2. Why does Dillard believe that putting together a book is interesting and exhilarating?

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

4. What, outside Dillard's library window, proved to cause the most distraction to her work?

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

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

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. In Chapter 1, what does Dillard say she thinks of as the usual reasons for an author getting stuck in a book?

9. How is the line of Dillard's words likened to a hammer in Chapter 1?

10. What is the meaning of Thoreau's note that "The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or perchance a palace or temple on the earth, and at length the middle-aged man concludes to build a wood-shed with them"?

(see the answer keys)

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