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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What happens to Cassandra's hometown in the poem "Cassandra Considers Declining the Gift"?
(a) It is swept away in a flood.
(b) It flourishes.
(c) It is struck by lightening.
(d) It burns down.

2. What made a comeback for people to buy after the war in the poem "Coconut"?
(a) Milk.
(b) Pizza.
(c) Chocolate.
(d) Oranges.

3. What do hearts do in the poem "The Tin Woodwoman Gets a Massage"?
(a) Bleed.
(b) Stop.
(c) Hurt.
(d) Change.

4. What does the speaker imagine the cicadas' song is saying in the poem "Cicadas"?
(a) Never.
(b) Now.
(c) Go!
(d) When?

5. Why does the speaker in the poem "September Mushrooms" miss the mushrooms again this year?
(a) She was scared of the mushrooms.
(b) She was immersed elsewhere.
(c) She was ill.
(d) She had just lost her home in a flood.

6. What fiction does Atwood write of in the poem "Shadow"?
(a) The fiction that you can live forever.
(b) The fiction that anyone is owed anything in life.
(c) The fiction that all family ties are strong.
(d) The fiction that this one likes you.

7. What does the speaker drive into the soft eyes of the coconut in the poem "Coconut"?
(a) A rope.
(b) A long steel nail.
(c) A pin.
(d) A paperclip.

8. What color does Cassandra want to dye her hair in the poem "Cassandra Considers Declining the Gift"?
(a) Red.
(b) Brown.
(c) Blond.
(d) Black.

9. Where does the speaker in the poem "Souvenir" appear more often than she used to?
(a) Funeral parlors.
(b) Other people's dreams.
(c) Pizza restaurants.
(d) The park.

10. What does the speaker implore the reader to do in the last stanza of "Late Poems"?
(a) Turn down the music.
(b) Turn down the bedcovers.
(c) Turn up the radio.
(d) Turn up the light.

11. How is the woman in the painting looking out of it in "A Genre Painting"?
(a) Aslant.
(b) Through lowered lids.
(c) Scheming.
(d) Through a glare.

12. What season is it in the end of Part 4 in the poem "Songs For Murdered Sisters"?
(a) Spring.
(b) Summer.
(c) Winter.
(d) Fall.

13. What does Atwood compare being in love to in "Everyone Else's Sex Life"?
(a) An expensive house.
(b) A demented rose-red circus tent.
(c) A pool.
(d) A really good movie.

14. Who used to take the dear ones in the poem "The Dear Ones"?
(a) Religious wanderers.
(b) Djinns.
(c) Gypsies.
(d) Cats.

15. What do the students like to pretend about the health teacher in "Health Class (1953)"?
(a) That they will all be successful one day.
(b) That the teacher is stupid.
(c) That the teacher is kind.
(d) That the teacher is funny.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the first line of the poem "Shadow"?

2. Why does the speaker not realize how good things were in the poem "Salt"?

3. What happens if one "looks behind" in the poem "Salt"?

4. What are the minds of the jack-o-lanterns filled with in the poem "Carving the Jacks"?

5. What are Kahlo's colors in the poem "Frida Kahlo, San Miguel, Ash Wednesday"?

(see the answer keys)

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