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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which is the best interpretation of "sick-thoughted Venus" in line 5?
(a) Venus cannot think clearly because she is ill.
(b) Venus's thoughts are evil.
(c) Venus's thoughts are unnatural.
(d) Venus is sick with love for Adonis.

2. What causes Venus to fall to the ground, unconscious?
(a) Adonis tells her that he will never love her or even desire her.
(b) She has a premonition of the words Adonis is about to speak.
(c) Adonis pushes her roughly away from him.
(d) She is overcome by the heat from the sun.

3. What does Venus compare Adonis to in line 8?
(a) A stag.
(b) A flower.
(c) The sun.
(d) A stallion.

4. What technique is used in line 59, " Even so she kiss’d his brow, his cheek, his chin"?
(a) Asyndeton.
(b) Oxymoron.
(c) Chiasmus.
(d) Anthimeria.

5. Who or what is being described when the word "fetlocks" is used in line 295?
(a) The stallion.
(b) Venus.
(c) Adonis.
(d) The mare.

6. What color is most prominent in the description of Venus kneeling before Adonis and putting her hand on his cheek?
(a) White.
(b) Purple.
(c) Blue.
(d) Red.

7. What does Venus mean when she says that the stallion stood "like a jade" when he was tied to the tree (line 391)?
(a) He was like a broken-down cart horse.
(b) He was as still as a statue.
(c) He was beautiful but not useful.
(d) He was more valuable before he revealed his rebellious streak.

8. Which techniques are used in lines 267-268, "The bearing earth with his hard hoof he wounds/ Whose hollow womb resounds like heaven’s thunder"?
(a) Metaphor and alliteration.
(b) Diacope and onomatopoeia.
(c) Onomatopoeia and metaphor.
(d) Alliteration and diacope.

9. What is the "jennet" that appears in line 260?
(a) A horse.
(b) A flower.
(c) A fox.
(d) A bird.

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

11. What metaphorical comparison is introduced when the horse crushes the bit?
(a) The horse is compared to an unruly child.
(b) The bit is compared to logic and reason.
(c) The bit is compared to an unjust law.
(d) The horse is compared to an escaped slave.

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

13. What technique is used in line 75, "Still is he sullen, still he lours and frets"?
(a) Synecdoche.
(b) Anaphora.
(c) Parallelism.
(d) Personification.

14. What does Adonis mean when he tells Venus that she can stop her tears and flattery, because in his heart, "they make no batt’ry" (line 426).
(a) Her tears and flattery are incapable of sustaining love in any lasting way.
(b) Her tears and flattery cannot break down the walls around his heart.
(c) Her tears and flattery are like an assault and can cause him physical harm.
(d) Her tears and flattery do not spark a fire in his heart.

15. How does Adonis feel after Venus falls unconscious?
(a) Amused.
(b) Skeptical.
(c) Guilty.
(d) Satisfied.

Short Answer Questions

1. What techniques are used in lines 417 and 418, "If springing things be any jot diminish’d,/ They wither in their prime, prove nothing worth"?

2. What is Adonis being compared to when the speaker says he is "Like a dive-dapper" (86)?

3. Which is the best interpretation of line 600, in which Venus is said "To clip Elysium and to lack her joy"?

4. Which is the most reasonable interpretation of Venus's characterization of Adonis as having a "mermaid's voice" (line 429)?

5. According to the speaker, what is the one thing that the horse lacks?

(see the answer keys)

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