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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Adonis do just before he turns his head away from Venus's kiss?
(a) Moans.
(b) Winks.
(c) Smiles.
(d) Shudders.

2. What "circuit" is Venus referring to when she tells Adonis "I have hemm’d thee here/ Within the circuit of this ivory pale" (lines 229-230)?
(a) Her arms.
(b) A ring of flowers.
(c) Her heart.
(d) The field.

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

4. To whom is Venus referring when she brags about being courted by the god of war?
(a) Mars.
(b) Apollo.
(c) Mercury.
(d) Jupiter.

5. Which is the best definition for "Fondling" as used in line 229?
(a) Savior.
(b) Stubborn one.
(c) Beloved.
(d) Lost one.

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

7. 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"?
(a) Personification and inversion.
(b) Simile and personification.
(c) Inversion and contraction.
(d) Contraction and simile.

8. Which technique is used in line 218, "And swelling passion doth provoke a pause"?
(a) Alliteration.
(b) Antistrophe.
(c) Inversion.
(d) Parallelism.

9. What techniques are used in lines 25 and 26, "With this she seizeth on his sweating palm,/ The precedent of pith and livelihood"?
(a) Onomatopoeia and metonymy.
(b) Metonymy and alliteration.
(c) Alliteration and assonance.
(d) Assonance and onomatopoeia.

10. What technique is used in line 431, "Melodious discord, heavenly tune, harsh-sounding"?
(a) Paradox.
(b) Anaphora.
(c) Chiasmus.
(d) Onomatopoeia.

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

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

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

14. What technique is used in line 432, "Ear’s deep sweet music, and heart’s deep sore wounding"?
(a) Antimetabole.
(b) Antithesis.
(c) Juxtaposition.
(d) Oxymoron.

15. What technique is used in lines 401 and 402, "Who is so faint that dare not be so bold/ To touch the fire, the weather being cold?"
(a) Metaphor.
(b) Symbolism.
(c) Oxymoron.
(d) Personification.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What colors are most prominent in the first 36 stanzas of the poem?

3. What does Venus mean when she says that the stallion stood "like a jade" when he was tied to the tree (line 391)?

4. Which is the best interpretation of "sick-thoughted Venus" in line 5?

5. Which technique is used in lines 221 and 222, "And now she weeps, and now she fain would speak/ And now her sobs do her intendments break"?

(see the answer keys)

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