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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

13. 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) Night and daybreak.
(d) A seed and a sprout.

14. 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.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. In the final quatrain, what does the speaker wonder about upsetting "you" with?

2. In the fourth stanza, what kind of person does the speaker ask if "you" want her to be?

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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