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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which two things does the final stanza use to represent the past and present?
(a) The directions east and west.
(b) A seed and a sprout.
(c) Night and daybreak.
(d) Gathering clouds and rain.

2. In the fourth stanza, what kind of person does the speaker ask if "you" want her to be?
(a) Tired and distracted.
(b) Distant and uninvolved.
(c) Angry and afraid.
(d) Sad and meek.

3. What precious stones does the speaker use to evoke beauty and value in the simile in line 27?
(a) Emeralds.
(b) Rubies.
(c) Diamonds.
(d) Sapphires.

4. In the final quatrain, what does the speaker wonder about upsetting "you" with?
(a) Kindness.
(b) Intelligence.
(c) Sexiness.
(d) Beauty.

5. What technique is used in line 29, "Out of the huts of history’s shame"?
(a) Juxtaposition.
(b) Oxymoron.
(c) Allegory.
(d) Allusion.

6. Where does the speaker say she obtained her gifts?
(a) From effort and hard work.
(b) From well-chosen friends.
(c) From the passage of time.
(d) From her ancestors.

7. Which is the most logical description of who "You" is in line 1?
(a) Scholars and critics.
(b) An unnamed oppressor.
(c) People of the past.
(d) A romantic partner.

8. In line 17, what kind of a person is described by the word "haughtiness"?
(a) Mean-spirited and petty.
(b) Arrogant and proud.
(c) Strange and eccentric.
(d) Sneaky and dishonest.

9. Which is the first stanza of the poem that is longer than four lines?
(a) 7.
(b) 9.
(c) 8.
(d) 6.

10. Which technique is used in line 9, "Just like moons and like suns"?
(a) Dialect.
(b) Euphemism.
(c) Allusion.
(d) Parallelism.

11. What technique is used in line 21, "You may shoot me with your words"?
(a) Innuendo.
(b) Kenning.
(c) Metaphor.
(d) Simile.

12. What techniques are used in line 19, "’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines"?
(a) Sibilance and onomatopoeia.
(b) Onomatopoeia and alliteration.
(c) Assonance and sibilance.
(d) Alliteration and assonance.

13. Why is the speaker's past "rooted in pain" (line 32)?
(a) Because of bigotry and discrimination.
(b) Because of the death of a loved one.
(c) Because she has been abandoned by someone she loves.
(d) Because no one appreciates her value.

14. What body of water does the speaker claim to be in the eighth stanza?
(a) A lake.
(b) A river.
(c) A stream.
(d) An ocean.

15. Which technique is frequently used at the beginnings of stanzas?
(a) Onomatopoeia.
(b) Rhetorical question.
(c) Internal rhyme.
(d) Cacophony.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which is the best definition of "beset" in line 6?

2. What kind of "certainty" does the speaker claim to have in line 10?

3. What technique is used in lines 7 and 8, "’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells/ Pumping in my living room"?

4. What words create a refrain in the final two stanzas of the poem?

5. Who is the author of "Still I Rise"?

(see the answer keys)

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