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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 1: "The Gift Outright," Lines 1-16.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What technique is used in the line "Such as she was, such as she would become" (line 16)?
(a) Chiasmus.
(b) Symbolism.
(c) Anaphora.
(d) Anadiplosis.

2. What does line 12 make clear is the "Gift" in the title "The Gift Outright"?
(a) Americans themselves.
(b) Surrender and salvation.
(c) The land Americans live on.
(d) Freedom from England.

3. According to the poem's second sentence, how did "we" find "salvation"?
(a) By dedicating ourselves to the Christian God.
(b) By finding the courage to fight England.
(c) By realizing our own weakness.
(d) By fully surrendering ourselves to the land.

4. To what event does the phrase "more than a hundred years/ Before we were her people" obliquely refer?
(a) The Pilgrims' first landing.
(b) The American Revolution.
(c) Columbus's voyage.
(d) The American Civil War.

5. In line 15, what is the speaker calling "unstoried, artless, unenhanced"?
(a) The American people.
(b) The American land.
(c) The wars fought to secure land.
(d) The history of the United States.

Short Answer Questions

1. What techniques are used in the lines "She was ours/ In Massachusetts, in Virginia" (lines 3-4)?

2. Which term most accurately describes the meter of "The Gift Outright"?

3. Which technique is used in the first line, "The land was ours before we were the land’s"?

4. What is the implied antecedent of "our" and "we" in lines 1 and 2?

5. What techniques are used in the lines "Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,/ Possessed by what we now no more possessed" (lines 6-7)?

(see the answer key)

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