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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which is the most reasonable interpretation of Venus's characterization of Adonis as having a "mermaid's voice" (line 429)?
(a) She is alluding to the mythological sirens.
(b) She is comparing his voice to the sound of the ocean.
(c) She is warning him that his voice can be snatched away.
(d) She is dismissing his perspective as too feminine.

2. What is Venus referring to when she tells Adonis that "The tender spring upon thy tempting lip/ Shows thee unripe" (lines 127-128)?
(a) The sickly green shade of his skin.
(b) The beginnings of a mustache.
(c) Beads of sweat.
(d) The residue of her own tears.

3. What does Adonis tell Venus is the only thing he could love?
(a) His horse.
(b) His own purity.
(c) His religious faith.
(d) A boar.

4. To whom is the poem dedicated?
(a) The Earl of Southampton.
(b) James I.
(c) Anne Hathaway.
(d) Elizabeth I.

5. To what does the speaker compare Venus finally opening her eyes after her faint?
(a) A leaf unfurling.
(b) The sunrise.
(c) Lightning.
(d) A flower blooming.

6. What technique is used in lines 432 and 433, "my ears would love/ That inward beauty and invisible"?
(a) Paraprosdokian.
(b) Personification.
(c) Anthimeria.
(d) Anadiplosis.

7. Which of the poem's motifs is most clearly illustrated by line 41, "Backward she push’d him, as she would be thrust"?
(a) The contrast between passion and virtue.
(b) Adonis's unnatural lack of desire.
(c) The difference between lust and love.
(d) The reversal of expected gender roles.

8. What does the speaker compare to caves?
(a) Venus's arguments.
(b) Adonis's heart and mind.
(c) Venus's eyes.
(d) Adonis's dimples.

9. What event causes the speaker to say that "The night of sorrow now is turn’d to day" (line 481)?
(a) Venus agrees to let Adonis leave.
(b) Helios feels jealous of Adonis.
(c) Adonis kisses Venus.
(d) The stallion returns to Adonis.

10. What technique is used in line 111, "Strong-temper’d steel his stronger strength obey’d"?
(a) Polyptoton.
(b) Anaphora.
(c) Epizeuxis.
(d) Epimone.

11. How does Adonis react to Venus's comparison of herself to a park?
(a) With compassion.
(b) With contempt.
(c) With desire.
(d) With laughter.

12. What does the speaker compare to a grinning wolf and a bullet?
(a) Cupid drawing his bow.
(b) Venus's lustful thoughts.
(c) Adonis's stallion's seduction of the mare.
(d) The words Adonis intends to say.

13. When Venus shakes her head and then Adonis's hand, looks at him and then at the ground, what is it most reasonable to infer about her motivation?
(a) She is attempting to distract Adonis from her real intentions.
(b) She is too distraught to know how to proceed.
(c) She is too shy to explain to Adonis exactly what she wants from him.
(d) She is having second thoughts about her confession of love.

14. How does Adonis view romantic love?
(a) He thinks it is chaotic and burdensome,
(b) He thinks it is frightening and dangerous.
(c) He thinks it elevates a person spiritually.
(d) He thinks it should be reserved for marriage.

15. What technique is used when, in line 108, Venus says that Mars made "my arms his field, his tent my bed"?
(a) Personification.
(b) Euphemism.
(c) Metonymy.
(d) Metaphor.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which is the best definition for "Fondling" as used in line 229?

2. Who or what is being described when the word "fetlocks" is used in line 295?

3. Which technique is used in line 218, "And swelling passion doth provoke a pause"?

4. To whom is Venus referring when she brags about being courted by the god of war?

5. What technique is used in line 59, " Even so she kiss’d his brow, his cheek, his chin"?

(see the answer keys)

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