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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does "Brazilian Tragedy" end?
(a) With cutting veins.
(b) With gun violence.
(c) With a hanging.
(d) With a drug overdose.

2. What is Severino's problem in "From 'The Life and Death of a Severino"?
(a) He has no name.
(b) His name is difficult to pronounce.
(c) He can't remember his name.
(d) He has a common name.

3. What does it mean that some of Bishop's poems are "Uncollected"?
(a) They were only recently discovered.
(b) They were published in a variety of different works.
(c) The poet did not want them to be published.
(d) They were never published before.

4. What does "A Word With You" describe?
(a) Languages.
(b) An intimate conversation.
(c) A trip to the park.
(d) A trip to the zoo.

5. In "In the Waiting Room," what does the poet wonder about the photos of the tribal women in National Geographic?
(a) If they live close by.
(b) If she'll be like them some day.
(c) If they are homeless.
(d) If they are starving.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the symbolic meaning of "Pleasure Seas"?

2. What happens to the man in "Brazilian Tragedy"?

3. What memory does the toad in "Giant Toad" recall?

4. To what does the poet liken the ocean in "Pleasure Seas"?

5. To what does the poet compare love in the third part of Three Valentines?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do the hats come to symbolize in "Exchanging Hats"?

2. What is the effect on the reader of the surprise ending in Vinicius de Moraes' "Sonnet of Intimacy"?

3. In what state does the poet imply she is currently in her poem "Sonnet," written in 1928?

4. How does the location in "Santarem" parallel the Garden of Eden?

5. What do the various animals symbolize in "A Word with You"?

6. Do you think "Lullaby for the Cat" is simply an innocent rhyme, or do you think it has a deeper meaning?

7. Why does the poet begins the section called Geography III with a geography lesson that throws a series of unanswered questions at the reader?

8. How is the character in "The Strayed Crab" an exaggerated human figure?

9. Why did Bishop write "The Mountain" in the first person?

10. How is the character in "The Giant Toad" an exaggerated human figure?

(see the answer keys)

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