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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

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. In line 17, what kind of a person is described by the word "haughtiness"?

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

5. Which is the first stanza of the poem that is longer than four lines?

(see the answer keys)

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