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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. In Everything, what are we told to look to for examination?
(a) Our surroundings.
(b) Our goals.
(c) Ourselves.
(d) Our God.

2. Which of these is a line from The Measure?
(a) No, not now.
(b) Ah, it's time.
(c) What shall we do?
(d) Hush, be still.

3. What does Oliver compare picking the right words to in Mysteries, Four of the Simple Ones?
(a) Growing a garden.
(b) Threading a needle.
(c) Picking fruit.
(d) Sorting money.

4. What time of day did the poet try to save the animal in The Measure?
(a) Evening.
(b) Morning.
(c) Afternoon.
(d) Night.

5. Why does Oliver like to use her most common literary device?
(a) It makes her work unique.
(b) It broadens understanding of humans.
(c) It comes easily to her.
(d) It is a symbolic form of writing.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Oliver try to avoid awkwardness in as she is writing?

2. What were the feet of the animal compared to in The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that comes First?

3. What does Oliver call most of her poems?

4. How does the editor describe the language in the first section of poems?

5. What does using nature in her poems allow Oliver to do?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Mysteries, Four of the Simple Ones, what does Oliver ask about a turtle?

2. In The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that Comes First, what is the bird doing at the beginning of the poem?

3. What does Oliver think the turtle was heading for in The Measure?

4. In Mysteries, Four of the Simple Ones, what does Oliver ask about a seed grain?

5. In Everything, what does Oliver say she wants her poems to be able to do?

6. In Work Sometimes, what does Oliver say happiness truly is?

7. What did Oliver do at the beginning of The Measure?

8. How did Oliver feel at the end of Work Sometimes?

9. What did the hawk do at the end of The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that Comes First?

10. In Everything, what kind of words does Oliver say she wants to avoid in her poetry, and what examples of good words does she give?

(see the answer keys)

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