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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "Waist and Sway," the passage in which jackdaws wait on the garden walls compares the lover to what?
(a) A wall.
(b) A bird.
(c) A shadow.
(d) A fig.

2. In "Cranes, Mafiosos, and a Polaroid Camera," where is the speaker?
(a) Pratt, Kansas.
(b) Kearney, Nebraska.
(c) Iola, Kansas.
(d) Chadron, Nebraska.

3. In "How the Milky Way Was Made," what Western cities' use of Colorado River water is criticized?
(a) Sacramento and Tempe.
(b) Phoenix and Dallas.
(c) Denver and San Francisco.
(d) Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

4. In the context of "Ode to the Beloved's Hips," in the expression "madre mías," what is the most likely reason that mía is made plural?
(a) This is how the acronym for "missing in action" is made plural in Spanish.
(b) To indicate more than one exclamation.
(c) More than one mother is being discussed.
(d) The mother of someone named "Mia" is being discussed.

5. In "Snake-Light," what does the speaker compare writing to?
(a) Capturing a snake.
(b) Shapeshifting.
(c) Amputation.
(d) Being eaten.

6. Who is the Jacques Derrida mentioned in "The First Water Is the Body"?
(a) A French-Canadian poet.
(b) A French philosopher.
(c) An Algerian artist.
(d) A Louisiana politician.

7. In "Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball," what does the speaker claim that Indian sweat smells like?
(a) Grape juice and Air Jordans.
(b) Airplane glue and potato chips.
(c) Tortillas and Pine-Sol.
(d) WD-40 and cake.

8. In "I, Minotaur," the speaker uses the word "Minotauromachy." Where does this word come from?
(a) A Shakespearean play.
(b) A Keats poem about a Grecian artifact.
(c) A work by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso.
(d) The contemporary YA series The Hunger Games.

9. In "The First Water Is the Body," what river does the author specifically discuss?
(a) The Colorado River.
(b) The Green River.
(c) The Blackfoot River.
(d) The Salmon River.

10. In "The First Water Is the Body," what word does the speaker borrow from John Berger?
(a) "Juxtaposition."
(b) "Channeled."
(c) "Submerge."
(d) "Pre-verbal."

11. In "If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas Desert," what does the speaker say her "lasso" is made of?
(a) Desire.
(b) Water.
(c) Light.
(d) Breath.

12. In "How the Milky Way Was Made," what does the speaker claim causes the milky appearance of the galaxy?
(a) Sparks from the sun.
(b) The quivering of her lover's body.
(c) The movement of fish.
(d) Dust from the moon.

13. In "Isn't the Air Also a Body, Moving?" what power does the speaker ascribe to the air?
(a) The power to tell us what we are.
(b) The power to dry out the land.
(c) The power to spread emotion from person to person.
(d) The power to give life.

14. In "Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball," what kind of food is mentioned twice?
(a) Foraged natural food.
(b) Homemade apple pie.
(c) Gas-station snacks.
(d) Government commodity food.

15. In "The Cure for Melancholy Is to Take the Horn," what British monarch is mentioned?
(a) Victoria I.
(b) Henry VIII.
(c) George III.
(d) Elizabeth I.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Ode to the Beloved's Hips," what twentieth century American movie is alluded to?

2. In "Waist and Sway," what page 78 diction choice indicates that the speaker feels punished or oppressed by her desire for the woman?

3. In "That Which Cannot Be Stilled," what number is described as "lucky" (42)?

4. In "That Which Cannot Be Stilled," what does the speaker "diagnose" herself and the reservation as?

5. On page 87 of "Snake-Light," why does the speaker's great-grandmother tell her they do not eat snakes?

(see the answer keys)

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