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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. In line 4, "Stop here, or gently pass!" what is the grammatical mood of the words "stop" and "pass"?
(a) Indicative.
(b) Imperative.
(c) Subjunctive.
(d) Interrogative.

2. Where are "the farthest Hebrides" (line 16)?
(a) Australia.
(b) Chile.
(c) Russia.
(d) Scotland.

3. What is the stanzaic form of "The Solitary Reaper"?
(a) Octet.
(b) Octave.
(c) Ballade.
(d) Ottava rima.

4. Who is the author of "The Solitary Reaper"?
(a) William Wordsworth.
(b) Percy Shelley.
(c) John Keats.
(d) William Blake.

5. In which stanza does the speaker make it clear that this event happened some time in the past?
(a) The second.
(b) The fourth.
(c) The third.
(d) The first.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the "sickle" in line 28?

2. In the lines "Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow / For old, unhappy, far-off things," what does "plaintive numbers" refer to (lines 18-19)?

3. What reasonable inference can be made about the reaper from line 17, "Will no one tell me what she sings?"?

4. What is the young woman doing in the field?

5. How does line 3, "Reaping and singing by herself," interrupt the poem's dominant metrical pattern?

Short Essay Questions

1. To which two birds does the speaker compare the reaper, and what area of the world does the speaker associate with each?

2. In what way do the places associated with the two birds create a dramatic contrast with one another?

3. Describe the rhyme scheme of "The Solitary Reaper."

4. How does the speaker's line 26 description of the reaper singing "As if her song could have no ending" reinforce the meaning of the poem's ending?

5. Describe the tense shift in "The Solitary Reaper" and explain what it reveals about the poem's narrative present.

6. What are the names of the two forms of poetry that are combined in this poem, and how are they combined?

7. Describe the meter of "The Solitary Reaper."

8. Summarize the action of "The Solitary Reaper."

9. Explain how the mention of "spring-time" in line 14's description of the cuckoo enhances the contrast between this image and the image of the nightingale.

10. What question does the speaker ask in the third stanza, and what two contrasting answers does he speculate about?

(see the answer keys)

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