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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 "From the Desire Field," what does the line "verde, te quiero verde" literally translate to (12)?
(a) Green, I want you green.
(b) Unripe, I love things unripe.
(c) Unripe, I want it unripe.
(d) Green, I love the green.

2. In "Catching Copper," when the brothers are searching for their bullet, what sound is heard?
(a) Laughter.
(b) Clicking.
(c) Barking.
(d) Moaning.

3. In "Manhattan Is a Lenape Word," what is the speaker's objection to her lover saying, "You make me feel like lightening" (15)?
(a) She associates lightening with Manhattan.
(b) She associates lightening with violence.
(c) She associates lightening with rain.
(d) She associates lightening with whiteness.

4. In "Run'n'Gun," what is a logical interpretation of the symbolic value of the fence outside the schoolyard?
(a) It stands for the insular world of reservation life.
(b) It stands for the barriers life puts in the way of poor Indian children.
(c) It stands for the "world" that education can open to underprivileged children.
(d) It stands for adults' failed attempts to keep children safe.

5. In "Asterion's Lament," what does the phrase, "Go forward, always down" represent (27)?
(a) Ariadne's advice to Theseus.
(b) The title of a Whitman poem.
(c) Commentary about U.S. history.
(d) Directions from the forest to the sea.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Skin-Light," what is the likely antecedent of "this" in "This is the war I was born for" (22)?

2. What distinguishes "Run'n'Gun" from the poems that come before it in the collection?

3. In "Run'n'Gun," what causes the speaker's older brother's game to deteriorate?

4. In "Asterion's Lament," the speaker talks about "the slake of a monster's appetite" (28). What does "slake" mean in this context?

5. In "The Mustangs," what is the purpose of mentioning the brother's "thin ankles" (35)?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "They Don't Love You Like I Love You," why does the speaker mention Beyoncé and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs?

2. What relationship exists between the title "Postcolonial Love Poem" and the line, "I learned Drink in a country of drought" (1)?

3. Explain the central conceit in the poem "Catching Copper."

4. What play on the word "race" is used in "American Arithmetic"?

5. In "Run'n'Gun," what life lessons does the speaker learn from playing basketball?

6. In "From the Desire Field," what is the "desire field," and why does the speaker find herself there?

7. In "Manhattan Is a Lenape Word," what dark joke does the speaker make about reparations?

8. In "Like Church," what is the literal claim about the speaker's window and what is its figurative significance?

9. What is the setting of "Manhattan Is a Lenape Word"?

10. What is the speaker's argument for her hands as "gods" in "These Hands, If Not Gods"?

(see the answer keys)

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