A fiction editor and a regular contributor at The New Yorker magazine, Roger Angell is probably best known for his insightful and elegantly written essays on baseball. In this "personal history," he focuses on another eloquent essayist, E. B. (Andy) White.
After you have read "Andy" (which appeared in The New Yorker, February 14, 2005), take this brief quiz, and then compare your responses with the answers at the bottom of the page. And be sure to read the three essays by E. B. White that are collected in our Essay Samplers:
- As we learn from the opening paragraph of "Andy," for over 50 years Roger Angell enjoyed a close family relationship with E.B. White. Angell was White's
(A) son
(B) brother
(C) nephew
(D) grandson
(E) stepson - Throughout this "personal history," Angell discusses a number of E. B. White's well-known books and essays. Which of the following is not one of the works he mentions?
(A) Stuart Little
(B) "Once More to the Lake"
(C) White Shift
(D) Charlotte's Web
(E) "Death of a Pig" - In paragraphs two and three, Angell recalls an incident from his childhood when White's shoes were stolen while the pair were ice skating. The conclusion that Angell draws from this experience is that E.B. White
(A) was often careless and forgetful
(B) had a readiness for play that lasted all his life
(C) rarely took life--or himself--very seriously
(D) was a sportsman at heart and a man of action
(E) was generous to a fault - Angell's recollection of White's "heart attack" while attending a neighbor's funeral service in Maine illustrates what point?
(A) E. B. White was a lifelong hypochondriac but not a solemn one.
(B) White had a habit of focusing attention on himself.
(C) White was in extremely poor health throughout most of his life.
(D) White never took himself very seriously.
(E) White's heart condition was probably the reason he wrote so often about human mortality. - Angell recalls how White's hood became entangled during "the encomiums and the enrobing" when he was being awarded an honorary degree at Dartmouth in 1948. What is an encomium?
(A) an expression of warm and glowing praise
(B) minor preparations before a major event
(C) a distinct territorial or cultural unit
(D) a meeting with an adversary or enemy
(E) a depressing or dispiriting encounter - Pointing to three of White's best-known essays, Angell observes that one theme frequently recurs in White's writing. That theme is
(A) death
(B) seize the day
(C) a belief in the afterlife
(D) patriotism
(E) the mixture of the sacred with the profane - Angell recalls that at least one aspect of White's Stuart Little stirred some controversy when the novel first appeared. What was that "anomaly"?
(A) Stuart is devoured by a large cat.
(B) Stuart is run over by a bread truck.
(C) Stuart marries a creature from another species.
(D) Without explanation, the Littles' second child, on arrival, is a mouse, not a boy.
(E) The Littles abandon Stuart without cause or explanation. - According to Angell, White one day "contrived an epochal whine," complaining "that he always came in third in my mother's heart." What does epochal mean?
(A) profoundly disturbing or upsetting
(B) shrill
(C) momentous, highly significant
(D) marked by lack of variation
(E) foolish, nonsensical - Discussing The Elements of Style, White's revised version of a handbook composed by one of his professors at Cornell, Angell identifies "White's gift to writers." What is that gift?
(A) complexity
(B) correctness
(C) obscurity
(D) simplicity
(E) clarity - In White's last months, his son Joe sometimes read aloud to him from White's own writings. When learning that the words were his own, what was White's typical reply?
(A) "Horsefeathers!"
(B) "Remarkable."
(C) "Well, not bad."
(D) "Impossible."
(E) "Some pig."
Answers:
1. E; 2. C; 3. B; 4. A; 5. A; 6. A; 7. D; 8. C; 9. E; 10. C.
