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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Venus's main criticism of chastity?
(a) It prevents people from having children.
(b) It prevents her from getting what she wants.
(c) It shows ingratitude toward the gods.
(d) It is a needlessly joyless practice.

2. How does Venus characterize animals like the lion, tiger, and wolf when in Adonis's presence?
(a) Tame.
(b) Predatory.
(c) Jealous.
(d) Fearful.

3. What does Venus say the boar is looking for with its "downward eye" (line 1106)?
(a) Its prey.
(b) A grave.
(c) Its foes.
(d) A bed.

4. When Venus suddenly has hope that Adonis is alive, who is the "rash suspect" that she "doth extenuate" (line 1009)?
(a) Death.
(b) Love.
(c) The boar.
(d) Adonis.

5. What is the best definition of "sepulchres" in line 622, "His snout digs sepulchres where’er he goes"?
(a) Trenches.
(b) Furrows.
(c) Wounds.
(d) Graves.

6. What technique is used in lines 815 and 816, "Look how a bright star shooteth from the sky,/ So glides he in the night from Venus’ eye"?
(a) Simile.
(b) Apostrophe.
(c) Personification.
(d) Synecdoche.

7. What technique is used in line 645, "Grew I not faint, and fell I not downright"?
(a) Anadiplosis.
(b) Chiasmus.
(c) Parallelism.
(d) Antistrophe.

8. What is making the sounds referred to in lines 847 and 848, "For who hath she to spend the night withal,/ But idle sounds resembling parasites"?
(a) Bugs.
(b) Birds.
(c) The night.
(d) Caves.

9. To what does Venus compare the fear of a person in love?
(a) The fear of a monarch whose castle is besieged by enemies.
(b) The fear of a shepherd seeing his flock beset by wolves.
(c) The fear of a person carrying treasure who is surrounded by thieves.
(d) The fear of a mother holding a newborn during a rising flood.

10. What does line 972 compare to "many clouds consulting for foul weather"?
(a) The years Venus will live without Adonis.
(b) The howling dogs.
(c) Venus's emotions.
(d) The events leading to Adonis's death.

11. In line 868, "She hearkens for his hounds and for his horn," which technique best conveys Venus's straining to hear a quiet, far-off sound?
(a) Alliteration.
(b) Diction.
(c) Imagery.
(d) Tone.

12. What technique is used in line 1138, "Find sweet beginning, but unsavoury end"?
(a) Chiasmus.
(b) Anthimeria.
(c) Paralepsis.
(d) Antithesis.

13. Besides being goddess of the moon and the hunt, what significant power was Cynthia believed to possess?
(a) The power to control the weather.
(b) The power to increase crop yields.
(c) The power to cause sudden illness and death.
(d) The power to cause memory loss and hallucinations.

14. What bird's song heralds the approach of morning?
(a) The lark.
(b) The thrush.
(c) The sparrow.
(d) The robin.

15. What techniques are used in lines 1015 and 1016, "“O love!” quoth she, “how much a fool was I,/ To be of such a weak and silly mind"?
(a) Apostrophe and inversion.
(b) Parallelism and euphemism.
(c) Inversion and parallelism.
(d) Euphemism and apostrophe.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which is the best summary of the meaning conveyed by the stanza that describes Venus's competing feelings of hope and despair?

2. Where does Venus go first thing in the morning?

3. What does Venus compare to an informer and a spy?

4. For what reason does Venus suggest the sun and wind took pity on Adonis's tears?

5. How does Venus know that the dogs are barking at a boar, bear, or lion?

(see the answer keys)

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