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

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Which two lines of each stanza create a kind of refrain in this poem?

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

4. In lines 2 and 3, the expression "when the night lets fall/ Its veil" is an example of which technique?

5. Whose presence is implied in "To bend and barter at desire's call" (line 4)?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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