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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 reasonable interpretation of what Venus means when she asks "Where did I leave?” and Adonis replies “No matter where" (line 715)?
(a) She is asking where Adonis intends to go once he leaves her that evening.
(b) She is asking Adonis to explain what he means when he accuses her of wanting to leave.
(c) She is asking what she was saying before her train of thought was interrupted.
(d) She is asking where she and Adonis were when she first told him that he could leave for the night.

2. What technique is used in line 1026, "Whereat she leaps that was but late forlorn"?
(a) Oxymoron.
(b) Consonance.
(c) Innuendo.
(d) Metaphor.

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

4. 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) Euphemism and apostrophe.
(b) Apostrophe and inversion.
(c) Parallelism and euphemism.
(d) Inversion and parallelism.

5. What technique is used in lines 693 and 694, "Ceasing their clamorous cry, till they have singled/ With much ado the cold fault cleanly out"?
(a) Euphony.
(b) Sibilance.
(c) Alliteration.
(d) Assonance.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which is the most reasonable interpretation of Venus's motives as she describes hunting a rabbit?

2. What is Venus's motive for flattering death?

3. What does Adonis tell Venus he primarily objects to about her professions of love?

4. What type of human does Venus compare the boar to?

5. Why does Venus ask Adonis whether he saw her grow pale and tremble when he mentioned hunting boar?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is conveyed by the personification and the simile in the passage where Venus runs through the brush toward the sounds of Adonis's hunting party?

2. What does Venus suggest Adonis do if he insists on hunting on the following day?

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

4. After Adonis's death, what does Venus predict about love?

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

6. How does Venus's attitude toward death change when she believes that Adonis is alive?

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

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

9. What does Venus tell Adonis about the relationship between jealousy and her foreboding?

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

(see the answer keys)

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