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

2. What characteristic of the boar does Venus's description primarily stress?
(a) It is ugly inside and out.
(b) It is divinely protected.
(c) It is cunning and deceptive.
(d) It is well-armed for battle.

3. 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) Caves.
(d) The night.

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

5. What critique does the speaker offer of Venus's song?
(a) It exaggerates her feelings.
(b) It is out of tune.
(c) It is immodest.
(d) It is long and boring.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What technique is used in line 1138, "Find sweet beginning, but unsavoury end"?

3. Who is the "flap-mouth’d mourner" referred to in line 920?

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

5. Besides being goddess of the moon and the hunt, what significant power was Cynthia believed to possess?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. What happens to Adonis's body at the end of the poem, and how does Venus respond?

5. Explain the pun in lines 827 and 828, when after Adonis leaves, the speaker says of Venus, "Even so confounded in the dark she lay,/ Having lost the fair discovery of her way."

6. What is ironic about the description of the colors around the boar's mouth?

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

8. What is the meaning of Venus's comments about veils and bonnets after Adonis's death?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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