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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the speaker ask if one of the sisters is hunting in Part 5 of the poem "Songs For Murdered Sisters"?

2. What does Cassandra fantasize about possessing in the poem "Cassandra Considers Declining the Gift"?

3. What was standing there when the door was opened in Part 3 of the poem "Songs For Murdered Sisters"?

4. What does the speaker say her passport photos looks like in the poem "Passports"?

5. What do the students like to pretend about the health teacher in "Health Class (1953)"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Atwood compare "late poems" to in the poem by the same title?

2. What kind of people were the Scythians in the poem "Digging Up the Scythians"?

3. What is the purpose of the mushrooms in the poem "September Mushrooms"?

4. In the poem "Health Class (1953)," why does the teacher scare the students?

5. Why does the speaker implore people to keep their clothes on in the poem "Everyone Else's Sex Life"?

6. What would be the advantage to slugs reproducing by bud or spore, according to Atwood in "Double-Entry Slug Sex"?

7. What kind of world exists in the poem "A Drone Scans the Wreckage"?

8. What does Atwood use the ghost cat in the poem by the same titled to symbolize?

9. What is the poem "Betrayal" about?

10. Why do people carve jack-o-lanterns in the poem "Carving the Jacks"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the poem "Blizzard" in Part I, Atwood refers to her very elderly mother as "fighting the storm." Write an essay exploring what Atwood likely means with this phrase, analyzing how Atwood uses weather symbolically.

Essay Topic 2

How does the last poem in the collection, "Blackberries," embody several of the themes and the overall tone of this entire collection? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 3

The first poem in this collection is titled "Late Poems;" how does Atwood use the first poem to set the reader's expectations for the rest of the collection in terms of style, tone, and content? Write an essay explaining your answers.

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