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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 the crab in "Strayed Crab" view himself?
(a) Ugly and powerful.
(b) Ugly and powerless.
(c) Beautiful and powerless.
(d) Beautiful and powerful.

2. How is the poet's perspective in Uncollected Poems different from that in her other poems?
(a) They're more objective.
(b) They're more detached.
(c) They're more personal.
(d) They're more universal.

3. Why is the character's name so common in 'From "The Life and Death of a Severino'"?
(a) The village residents are members of the same family.
(b) It was the name of a king.
(c) It was the name of a local hero.
(d) It was the name of a local celebrity.

4. In "Banks," to what does the poet compare his complaining?
(a) A drum.
(b) A bassoon.
(c) A flute.
(d) A violin.

5. What experience does the reader gain from the poems in Translations?
(a) Poetry from a different time and place.
(b) Poetry from Bishop's time and place.
(c) Bishop's view of the poems.
(d) A sense of Bishop's relationship with the poets.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Who is the author of the Four Sambas?

3. What does "For C.W.B." depict?

4. What does Bishop's subject matter in the poems in Uncollected Work and Geography III tell us about her?

5. Who is the philosopher referenced in "The Wit"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the political situation that inspired "The Hanging of the Mouse"?

2. Why do you think Bishop chooses animals to symbolize the players in "The Hanging of the Mouse"?

3. In Carlos Drummond de Andrade's "Infancy," why does the author refer to Robinson Crusoe as "the long story that never comes to an end"?

4. From what perspective is the story of "The Hanging of the Mouse" told?

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

6. How does Octavio Paz view the beginning of a new year in "January First"?

7. Which stanza in section XIV of "From 'The Death and Life of a Severino'" seems different from the others?

8. What does the porch symbolize in "Sunday at Key West"?

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

10. What is the double meaning of the phrase "family travelling through the flesh" in Drummond de Andrade's "Family Portrait"?

(see the answer keys)

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