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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 effort and hard work.
(c) From her ancestors.
(d) From well-chosen friends.

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

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

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

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

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

7. 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.

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

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

10. What words create a refrain in the final two stanzas of the poem?
(a) "I rise."
(b) "Again I rise."
(c) "I rise and rise."
(d) "Still I rise."

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

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What techniques are used in line 19, "’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines"?

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

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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