View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Stanzas four through six have which techniques in common?
(a) First person and imperative mood.
(b) First person and indicative mood.
(c) Second person and indicative mood.
(d) Second person and imperative mood.

2. In the first stanza, what does the speaker suggest makes the loss of some things especially easy to accept?
(a) They are small and insignificant.
(b) They are part of a distant past.
(c) They are difficult to live with.
(d) They seem to want to get lost.

3. What is used for the first time in the poem's final stanza?
(a) Parenthetical expressions.
(b) Modifying phrases.
(c) Coordinating conjunctions.
(d) Sentence fragments.

4. Who is the author of "One Art"?
(a) Lucille Clifton.
(b) Sylvia Plath.
(c) Elizabeth Bishop.
(d) Audre Lourde.

5. What is the most reasonable interpretation of the speaker's line 13 claim that they have "lost two cities"?
(a) The speaker cannot find either city.
(b) The speaker is no longer interested in either city.
(c) The speaker no longer lives in either city.
(d) The speaker is not welcome in either city.

6. What is the meaning of the word "fluster" in line 4?
(a) Humorous coincidence.
(b) Sudden, uncoordinated movement.
(c) Confused agitation.
(d) Tiring inconvenience.

7. What is a reasonable statement to make about the effect of the enjambment in lines 8 and 9, "places, and names, and where it was you meant/ to travel"?
(a) It creates an angry, agitated tone because of the isolation of the word "meant," which ends with a harsh sound.
(b) It creates the sense of something being missing or lost because the thought is interrupted by enjambment.
(c) It creates irony because the thought's completion on line 9 is actually the opposite of what the speaker means.
(d) It creates a humorous effect because the words that complete the thought on line 9 are unexpected.

8. What is the rhyme scheme of the first five stanzas of "One Art"?
(a) AAA.
(b) AAB.
(c) ABB.
(d) ABA.

9. What technique is employed in line 16, "Even losing you"?
(a) Sarcasm.
(b) Dramatic irony.
(c) Apostrophe.
(d) Understatement.

10. How many refrains does "One Art" contain?
(a) 1.
(b) 3.
(c) 2.
(d) 4.

11. What does the second stanza suggest the "art" of losing consists of?
(a) Ignoring loss.
(b) Accepting loss.
(c) Conquering loss.
(d) Grieving loss.

12. Which is a reasonable statement of how the punctuation and syntax of the final stanza affect the stanza's tone?
(a) They accelerate the pace as the stanza unfolds, creating a sense of urgency.
(b) They slow its pace and create a sense of uncertainty.
(c) They create a rolling rhythm that invokes the light, carefree tone of a nursery rhyme.
(d) They create a choppy sound that indicates anger.

13. Lines 4 and 6, ending in the words "fluster" and "master," exhibit what type of rhyme?
(a) Eye rhyme.
(b) Perfect rhyme.
(c) Slant rhyme.
(d) Internal rhyme.

14. The relationship between stanza two and stanza three is most accurately expressed by which of the following?
(a) Stanza three exposes the inherent contradictions in the ideas about loss advanced by stanza two.
(b) Stanza three repeats the emotional plea of stanza two in a more logical and rational form.
(c) Stanza three extends the small, everyday losses in stanza two into more serious and personal territory.
(d) Stanza three provides hyperbolic examples of the effects of loss proposed in stanza two.

15. What "Art" does the title refer to?
(a) The art of maintaining relationships.
(b) The art of maintaining perspective.
(c) The art of mastering loss.
(d) The art of disciplining the emotions.

Short Answer Questions

1. In lines 2 and 3, "so many things seem filled with the intent/ to be lost that their loss is no disaster," what is the antecedent of the word "their"?

2. What does the colon at the end of line 7, "Then practice losing farther, losing faster," indicate about the "places, and names" in line 8?

3. What is the name of the metrical foot that appears at the end of lines 1 and 3 in most of the stanzas?

4. In line 7, "Then practice losing farther, losing faster," rhythm is created through which devices?

5. What is different about the final stanza of "One Art"?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 727 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample