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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In line 10, what does the speaker admit to having lost?
(a) Their college diploma.
(b) Their mother's watch.
(c) Their wedding ring.
(d) Their child's artwork.

2. In line 7, "Then practice losing farther, losing faster," rhythm is created through which devices?
(a) Alliteration, epistrophe, and antithesis.
(b) Cacophony, epizeuxis, and diazeugma.
(c) Parallelism, diacope, and consonance.
(d) Anaphora, assonance, and asyndeton.

3. What is the verb mood of line 4, "Lose something every day"?
(a) Interrogative.
(b) Subjunctive.
(c) Imperative.
(d) Indicative.

4. Which is the best description of the tone of stanza one?
(a) Ebullient.
(b) Sanguine.
(c) Bewildered.
(d) Livid.

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

6. Which word in lines 10 and 11, "And look! my last,/ or next-to-last, of three loved houses went," creates a momentary shift in verb mood?
(a) The word "next."
(b) The word "look."
(c) The word "went."
(d) The word "loved."

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

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

9. How many lines does "One Art" have?
(a) 19.
(b) 20.
(c) 18.
(d) 17.

10. What does the speaker use in line 5 as an example of a common lost object?
(a) Keys.
(b) Glasses.
(c) Socks.
(d) Pens.

11. Which technique is used in the speaker's claim to have lost "some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent" (line 14)?
(a) Personification.
(b) Hyperbole.
(c) Simile.
(d) Imagery.

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

13. What kind of metrical foot is the most frequent in "One Art"?
(a) Trochee.
(b) Iamb.
(c) Dibrach.
(d) Spondee.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the most reasonable interpretation of the speaker's line 13 claim that they have "lost two cities"?

2. What does the second stanza suggest the "art" of losing consists of?

3. 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"?

4. What "Art" does the title refer to?

5. 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"?

(see the answer keys)

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