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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 8 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the expression "feet of clay" in line 15 refer to?

2. What does the word "shod" in line 12 refer to?

3. What ideas are associated with the snow in this poem?

4. Which lines of each stanza are indented?

5. Which line most clearly echoes the tension between "little girls" (line 5) and "prowling" (line 6)?

Short Essay Questions

1. What indications does the speaker give that he feels the sex workers' choices indicate something about all Black people in America?

2. How does McKay convey the idea that these women are sex workers?

3. How does the use of the word "prowling" contrast with the poem's previous descriptions of the women?

4. How does the second stanza set up a contrast between dark and light?

5. Where is Harlem and why is it significant to the meaning of this poem?

6. What is the poem's first image, and how does it set a tone for the rest of the poem?

7. What does the poem conclude is the cause of the women's choice to pursue sex work?

8. Describe the form of this poem.

(see the answer keys)

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