View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. How does the speaker characterize herself in line 4?
(a) Brave and perseverent.
(b) Intelligent and curious.
(c) Lively and confident.
(d) Lighthearted and silly.

3. What technique is used in lines 7 and 8, "’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells/ Pumping in my living room"?
(a) Juxtaposition.
(b) Metaphor.
(c) Personification.
(d) Simile.

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

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

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

7. Which is the best definition of "beset" in line 6?
(a) Troubled.
(b) Decorated.
(c) Cradled.
(d) Inspired.

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

9. Which is the best definition for "trod" in the context of line 3?
(a) Press down with the foot.
(b) Drag along the floor or earth.
(c) The sound of footsteps.
(d) Throw or hurl downward.

10. What is the primary quality that the speaker's stanza eight description of a body of water is intended to convey?
(a) Endurance.
(b) Persistence.
(c) Independence.
(d) Power.

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

12. What technique does the first line of the poem, "You may write me down in history," introduce?
(a) Apostrophe.
(b) Catalog.
(c) Allegory.
(d) Verbal irony.

13. What is the rhyme scheme of the first seven stanzas?
(a) ABCB.
(b) ABBA.
(c) ABAC.
(d) ABAB.

14. What kind of "certainty" does the speaker claim to have in line 10?
(a) The "certainty of air."
(b) The "certainty of springtime."
(c) The "certainty of history."
(d) The "certainty of tides."

15. Who is the author of "Still I Rise"?
(a) Nikki Giovanni.
(b) Toni Morrison.
(c) Alice Walker.
(d) Maya Angelou.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which technique is frequently used at the beginnings of stanzas?

2. Which technique is used in line 9, "Just like moons and like suns"?

3. What technique is used in line 29, "Out of the huts of history’s shame"?

4. What precious stones does the speaker use to evoke beauty and value in the simile in line 27?

5. Why is the speaker's past "rooted in pain" (line 32)?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 429 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample