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

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What color does the speaker assign to the sex workers' feet?

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

3. Which techniques are evident in line 4, "To bend and barter at desire's call"?

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

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

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 the use of the word "prowling" contrast with the poem's previous descriptions of the women?

3. Describe the form of this poem.

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

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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