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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10. 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.

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

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

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

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

15. 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.

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. What is the primary quality that the speaker's stanza eight description of a body of water is intended to convey?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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