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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How do the mayflies view their lives?
(a) As a waste of time.
(b) As a relatively short time.
(c) As entirely too long.
(d) As a relatively long time.

2. How does the poet accurately describe the behavior of a moth in this poem?
(a) By describing the way the moth moves.
(b) By comparing the moth's movements to music.
(c) By giving it human emotions and feelings.
(d) By having the two speakers talk at the same time.

3. What happened after the two book lice met?
(a) They shared a book as a home.
(b) They fell in love.
(c) They got into a fight.
(d) They tried to move to separate shelves.

4. "Grasshoppers" describes the __________ of grasshoppers.
(a) Eating.
(b) Sleeping.
(c) Dying.
(d) Hatching.

5. How do the mayflies see their youth?
(a) As only yesterday.
(b) As an anxious period of time.
(c) They think nothing of their youth.
(d) As so very long ago.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the water strider's special skill?

2. How did other types of insects react to the water strider's abilities?

3. What do the two lice spend this poem doing?

4. How do the letters that are the answer to number 54 have emphasis placed on them?

5. How does the poet help the reader relate to fireflies?

Short Essay Questions

1. How are other animals like humans? What human qualities do other animals have?

2. What is the mood of the book lice poem? Why?

3. What is "Joyful Noise?" Why might the poet find this joyful?

4. Describe the grasshoppers in "Grasshoppers" and the water striders in "Water Striders." How do they compare?

5. What literary devices does the poet use to express the moth's feelings?

6. How does the mayfly's perception of time compare to our own?

7. How is the structure of the poem "Grasshoppers" reminiscent of the movement of the grasshoppers?

8. How does a mayfly's life compare to our own?

9. Why are mayflies so frantic, according to this poem?

10. What is the purpose of this book?

(see the answer keys)

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