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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. What is the most logical definition of the word "fair" in the context of line 1083, "Having no fair to lose, you need not fear"?
(a) Calm.
(b) Beauty.
(c) Joy.
(d) Justice.

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

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

4. Whom does Venus address as a "clear god" (line 860)?
(a) The wind.
(b) The sun.
(c) The morning.
(d) The sky.

5. What is Venus saying when she asks the world "what canst thou boast/ Of things long since, or anything ensuing" (lines 1077 and 1078)?
(a) Any time before Adonis's birth or after his death is worthless.
(b) The world has no right to brag about itself if it would allow Adonis to die.
(c) The world is a cruel place that does not allow love to grow naturally.
(d) The relationship between the past and the present is not as clear as people pretend.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which techniques are used in line 838, "love is wise in folly foolish witty"?

2. 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"?

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

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

5. What technique is used in line 1026, "Whereat she leaps that was but late forlorn"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Venus say that nature should be convicted of treason, and what is Cynthia's plan to thwart what nature has done?

2. What criticism does the speaker make of lovers' stories?

3. What does Venus tell Adonis about his beauty and the boar?

4. What happens to Venus's eyes when she first sees Adonis's dead body?

5. How does the construction of line 832, "Passion on passion deeply is redoubled," mimic the sense of what is happening in this passage?

6. Describe the details of Venus's vision of Adonis and the boar.

7. How does Venus portray Adonis having sex as a kind of selfless action and his choosing chastity as selfishness?

8. What does Venus say about death when she thinks that Adonis has died?

9. How does Venus contrast the behavior of fish and birds with the behavior of the boar?

10. What conclusion does Venus reach about why the boar killed Adonis, and what does this cause her to reflect about her own behavior?

(see the answer keys)

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