View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. "Garlic and sapphires in the mud," described at the outset of Part II, clot what?
(a) The still point of the turning world.
(b) The bedded axle-tree.
(c) The artery of truth.
(d) The memory of inveterate scars.

2. Across what does the light fall, mentioned by the speaker in Part I of "East Coker" after the second time he utters the phrase "In my beginning is my end"?
(a) The deep lane.
(b) The gray stones.
(c) The open field.
(d) The village street.

3. To what agony do the "Whisper of running streams" and "The laughter in the garden" point, according to Part III of "East Coker"?
(a) Autumn and winter.
(b) Freedom and responsibility.
(c) Love and loss.
(d) Death and birth.

4. Whose hidden laughter in the foliage does the speaker mention in the final lines of "Burnt Norton"?
(a) Memories.
(b) Whispers.
(c) Children.
(d) Fairies.

5. The speaker claims in Part V of "East Coker" that what "is most nearly itself / When here and now cease to matter"?
(a) Man.
(b) Love.
(c) Truth.
(d) Time.

6. Of what wisdom does the speaker hope to acquire, as stated near the end of Part II of "East Coker"?
(a) The wisdom of death.
(b) The wisdom of God.
(c) The wisdom of old men.
(d) The wisdom of humility.

7. For the appeasement of what does the "trilling wire in the blood" of Part II in "Burnt Norton" sing?
(a) Inveterate scars.
(b) The circulation of the lymph.
(c) Long forgotten wars.
(d) The drift of stars.

8. Only through what can time, as stated in the final line of "Burnt Norton," Part II, be conquered?
(a) Time.
(b) Death.
(c) Truth.
(d) Eternity.

9. With what does the "periphrastic study in a worn-out poetical fashion" leave one to wrestle, as stated in the second part of "East Coker"'?
(a) Truth and judgment.
(b) Negation of humanity.
(c) Words and meanings.
(d) Assertion and denial.

10. What does the speaker of East Coker parallel with "death" in the final lines of Part I of "East Coker"?
(a) Life.
(b) Drinking.
(c) Sleep.
(d) Dung.

11. What, described in Part I of "Burnt Norton," lays on the other side of the door that the speaker and his auditor never opened?
(a) The rose-garden.
(b) Possibility.
(c) Time future.
(d) The bird.

12. From what is man said in Part II of "Burnt Norton" to be protected by the "enchainment of past and future" in the body?
(a) Reality and truth.
(b) Heaven and damnation.
(c) Freedom and expression.
(d) Sin and sight.

13. In the opening eight lines of the third part of "East Coker", the speaker mentions the "Directory of" what?
(a) Papers.
(b) Directors.
(c) Lights.
(d) Stars.

14. Which flowers had "the look of flowers that are looked at" in Part I of "Burnt Norton"?
(a) The daffodils.
(b) The daisies.
(c) The roses.
(d) The tulips.

15. Under what are all of the dancers gone, according to the last line of Part II of "East Coker"?
(a) The sea.
(b) The earth.
(c) The hill.
(d) The sky.

Short Answer Questions

1. Interpretively, what is meant by "those long since under earth / Nourishing the corn"? in Part I of "East Coker"?

2. What is heard in Part II upon the "sodden floor / Below" pursuing a pattern as before?

3. What does the speaker state is the "cause and end of movement" in the fifth part of "Burnt Norton"?

4. The speaker says near the end of Part V of "East Coker" that old men ought to be what?

5. What is said to be "not here" in this "twittering world" in the "Burnt Norton"'s third part?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 600 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample