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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. Which is the best definition of "bootless" in the context of line 422?
(a) Informal, casual.
(b) Useless, pointless.
(c) Unmannerly, rude.
(d) Irresponsible, careless.

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

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

4. 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 having second thoughts about her confession of love.
(b) She is attempting to distract Adonis from her real intentions.
(c) She is too shy to explain to Adonis exactly what she wants from him.
(d) She is too distraught to know how to proceed.

5. 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) The field.
(b) Her heart.
(c) Her arms.
(d) A ring of flowers.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is the author of the poem's epigraph?

2. Which technique is used in line 219, "Red cheeks and fiery eyes blaze forth her wrong"?

3. Which is the best definition of "stillitory" in line 443, "For from the stillitory of thy face excelling"?

4. What technique is used in lines 254 and 255, "Her words are done, her woes the more increasing;/ The time is spent, her object will away"?

5. What does the speaker compare to a grinning wolf and a bullet?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Venus tell Adonis he can learn from his horse?

2. Explain the comparison the speaker makes between Adonis's horse and one created by an artist.

3. What plan does Adonis share with Venus just as she is finally about to let him leave her, and how does Venus react?

4. Explain the comparison made between Adonis's mouth and a "red morn" (line 453).

5. Describe the stanza form in Venus and Adonis.

6. What is Venus's purpose in talking about her relationship with the god of war?

7. Throughout the passage, which participants in a trial is Venus compared to?

8. In lines 131 and 132, what does Venus mean when she tells Adonis that "Fair flowers that are not gather’d in their prime/ Rot, and consume themselves in little time"?

9. Throughout the first 36 stanzas, how is Adonis depicted?

10. Why does the speaker compare Venus's eyes to "the moon in water seen by night" (line 492)?

(see the answer keys)

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