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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

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

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

6. 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.

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

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

9. What technique is used in the lines "She was our land more than a hundred years/ Before we were her people" (lines 2-3)?
(a) Symbolism.
(b) Metonymy.
(c) Personification.
(d) Alliteration.

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

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

12. What techniques are used in the lines "She was ours/ In Massachusetts, in Virginia" (lines 3-4)?
(a) Synecdoche and asyndeton.
(b) Antithesis and synecdoche.
(c) Asyndeton and apostrophe.
(d) Apostrophe and antithesis.

13. 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) Antithesis and oxymoron.
(c) Epistrophe and chiasmus.
(d) Chiasmus and antithesis.

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

15. What technique is used in line 10, "We were withholding from our land of living"?
(a) Paradox.
(b) Metonymy.
(c) Alliteration.
(d) Personification.

Short Answer Questions

1. What technique is used in the line "Such as she was, such as she would become" (line 16)?

2. What does line 12 make clear is the "Gift" in the title "The Gift Outright"?

3. In line 15, what is the speaker calling "unstoried, artless, unenhanced"?

(see the answer keys)

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