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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the expression "feet of clay" in line 15 refer to?
(a) A delicate, easily-fractured nature.
(b) A hidden character flaw.
(c) Stubbornness and selfishness.
(d) Cowardice and fear.

2. Which lines of each stanza are indented?
(a) The first and third.
(b) The fifth and sixth.
(c) The second and fourth.
(d) The first and sixth.

3. What does the word "shod" in line 12 refer to?
(a) Footwear.
(b) Movement.
(c) Sound.
(d) Clothing.

4. What is being referred to with the expression "silver break" (line 7)?
(a) Reflections.
(b) Dawn.
(c) Headlights.
(d) Streetlights.

5. Which techniques are evident in line 4, "To bend and barter at desire's call"?
(a) Asyndeton and euphony.
(b) Euphony and alliteration.
(c) Personification and asyndeton.
(d) Alliteration and personification.

6. Which two lines of each stanza create a kind of refrain in this poem?
(a) The fifth and sixth.
(b) The first and third.
(c) The first and sixth.
(d) The second and fourth.

7. In line 1, "footsteps of a lass" is an example of which technique?
(a) Alliteration.
(b) Sibilance.
(c) Synesthesia.
(d) Onomatopoeia.

8. Which line most clearly echoes the tension between "little girls" (line 5) and "prowling" (line 6)?
(a) Line 7, "Through the long night until the silver break."
(b) Line 11, "The dusky, half-clad girls of tired feet."
(c) Line 9, "Through the lone night until the last snow-flake."
(d) Line 12, "Are trudging, thinly shod, from street to street."

9. Whose presence is implied in "To bend and barter at desire's call" (line 4)?
(a) Bystanders.
(b) Pimps.
(c) Police officers.
(d) Clients.

10. In the first image of the sex workers, what is being emphasized?
(a) The burden of social expectations.
(b) Their reaction to the cold.
(c) The motion of their bodies.
(d) Their determination.

11. What are the sex workers wearing on their feet?
(a) Elaborate shoes with high heels.
(b) Light shoes meant to be worn indoors.
(c) Boots meant to protect them from snow and rain.
(d) Thick-soled shoes that make them appear taller.

12. What color does the speaker assign to the sex workers' feet?
(a) Black.
(b) White.
(c) Gray.
(d) Silver.

13. In line 16, what word does the speaker use to describe the feet of his own race?
(a) Prideful.
(b) Aching.
(c) Fearful.
(d) Sacred.

14. In lines 2 and 3, the expression "when the night lets fall/ Its veil" is an example of which technique?
(a) Antithesis.
(b) Simile.
(c) Paradox.
(d) Personification.

15. What ideas are associated with the snow in this poem?
(a) Punishment, corruption, and justice.
(b) Circumstance, poverty, and innocence.
(c) Prejudice, indifference, and suffering.
(d) Heaven, purity, and nature.

(see the answer keys)

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