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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 advice does the gypsy give to the speaker of the poem entitled "Bad Luck Card"?
(a) To place a knife underneath his bed.
(b) To find a lover.
(c) To commit suicide.
(d) To pray.

2. What type of business had the speaker of the poem "Madam's Past History" run for a while before moving on to a different business?
(a) A hair salon.
(b) A restaurant.
(c) A bar.
(d) A bookstore.

3. The speaker of the poem "Negro" states that he has been a singer "all the way from Africa" (5) to where?
(a) Alabama.
(b) Tennessee.
(c) Georgia.
(d) Timbuktu.

4. What adjective is used to describe the place to which the Ku Klux Klan members take the speaker of the poem entitled "Ku Klux"?
(a) Dark.
(b) Bereft.
(c) Lonesome.
(d) Crowded.

5. In what position is the subject of the poem "Troubled Woman"?
(a) She is standing.
(b) She is floating in the air.
(c) She is sitting.
(d) She is lying down.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is the speaker of the poem entitled "Madam and the Rent Man"?

2. The poem entitled "Freedom's Plow" repeats several times that it is better to die free than to what?

3. What is the name of the fortune teller's lover in the poem entitled "Ballad of the Fortune Teller"?

4. The poem "America" focuses on which two marginalized groups?

5. What country is NOT mentioned within the poem entitled "Good Morning Revolution"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the Existential viewpoint of the poem entitled "I Dream a World"?

2. In what way is irony utilized within the poem entitled "The South"?

3. To what element does Hughes compare the object of a drum in the poem entitled "Drum"?

4. In what way is the theme of peace depicted in the poem called "Death of an Old Seaman"?

5. In what way is repetition used within the poem entitled "Brass Spittoons"?

6. In what way are sensory details used within the poem entitled "Harlem Night Song"?

7. In what way is the theme of isolation depicted within the poem entitled "Little Old Letter"?

8. How is the theme of family bonds depicted within the poem entitled "Mother to Son"?

9. In what way is the water motif depicted differently within the poem "The Bitter River" than in many other works within the Vintage Hughes collection?

10. In what way is the theme of racially-motivated brutality present within the poem entitled "The Bitter River"?

(see the answer keys)

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