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

2. In "How the Milky Way Was Made," what do the Natives lift into the sky?
(a) The sun.
(b) The moon.
(c) Water.
(d) Fish.

3. What name for the Mojave people does the speaker share in "The First Water Is the Body"?
(a) Te'po'ta'ahl.
(b) 'Aha Makav.
(c) Achumawi.
(d) Me-wuk.

4. In "Grief Work," what is the "black flower" the speaker mentions in the opening of the poem, on page 93?
(a) The speaker's sorrow.
(b) The mark left by a bull's horn.
(c) The stinger of a yellow jacket.
(d) The pupil of the beloved's eye.

5. In "Snake-Light," what is the rhetorical purpose of mentioning the butterflies?
(a) They symbolize the beauty of the desert ecosystem.
(b) They symbolize transformation and the creation of life from death.
(c) They symbolize the lingering and then departure of the snake's spirit.
(d) They symbolize the lightness and freedom of shedding the body.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas Desert," what does the speaker say her "lasso" is made of?

2. In "The First Water Is the Body," whom does the speaker call "The only red people I've ever seen" (46)?

3. In "How the Milky Way Was Made," what does the speaker claim causes the milky appearance of the galaxy?

4. In "Ode to the Beloved's Hips," why are pears, apples, and figs specifically mentioned?

5. In "I, Minotaur," what does the speaker call "lilac-lit pools of ablution" (57)?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "It Was the Animals," what does the speaker's guest tell her the inscription is, and what is it in reality?

2. In "I, Minotaur," to what plant does the speaker compare herself, and why?

3. What two conceits are central to "If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas Desert"?

4. In "How the Milky Way Was Made," what does the speaker say about Coyote?

5. Explain the metaphor "Transubstantiation bone--hips of bread,/ wine-whet thighs" in "Ode to the Beloved's Hips" (37).

6. In "That Which Cannot Be Stilled," what happens when the speaker goes to the hospital for a panic attack?

7. In what two senses can the title "My Brother, My Wound" be interpreted?

8. In "It Was the Animals," who comes to the speaker's house, and what is that person carrying?

9. In "Snake-Light," what comparison does the speaker make between snakes and writing?

10. In "Snake-Light," what does the speaker say happens when the word "Hikwiir" is said aloud (84)?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 960 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample