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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 3 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which is the primary definition of "still" being used in the expression "still colonials" in line 5?
(a) Continuing to be.
(b) Nevertheless.
(c) Unmoving.
(d) Quiet.

2. 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)?
(a) Oxymoron and epistrophe.
(b) Epistrophe and chiasmus.
(c) Chiasmus and antithesis.
(d) Antithesis and oxymoron.

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

4. What is the antecedent of "it" in the phrase "it was ourselves" (line 9)?
(a) "Still colonials" (line 5).
(b) "Something we were withholding" (line 8).
(c) "What we still were unpossessed by" (line 6).
(d) "What we now no more possessed" (line 7).

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

6. Which term most accurately describes the meter of "The Gift Outright"?
(a) Blank verse.
(b) Heroic verse.
(c) Ballad meter.
(d) Free verse.

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

8. The repetition of the word "deed" in line 13 is an example of which technique?
(a) Epizeuxis.
(b) Epistrophe.
(c) Antanaclasis.
(d) Anadiplosis.

9. What technique is used in the phrase "unstoried, artless, unenhanced" (line 15)?
(a) Asyndeton.
(b) Assonance.
(c) Euphemism.
(d) Apostrophe.

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

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

12. What is alluded to in the phrase "the land vaguely realizing westward" (line 14)?
(a) The Louisiana Purchase.
(b) The forced resettlement of Native peoples.
(c) The American Civil War.
(d) The Westward expansion of the United States.

13. What is the implied antecedent of "our" and "we" in lines 1 and 2?
(a) Revolutionaries.
(b) Farmers.
(c) Americans.
(d) Colonists.

14. Which technique is used in the first line, "The land was ours before we were the land’s"?
(a) Anaphora.
(b) Allegory.
(c) Euphemism.
(d) Chiasmus.

15. Who is the author of "The Gift Outright"?
(a) Robert Lowell.
(b) Donald Hall.
(c) Galway Kinnell.
(d) Robert Frost.

Short Answer Questions

1. What technique is used in the lines "She was our land more than a hundred years/ Before we were her people" (lines 2-3)?

2. What technique is used in line 10, "We were withholding from our land of living"?

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

(see the answer keys)

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