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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following is the first line of “My Brother at 3 A.M.”?

2. From which of the following does the narrator lick apple juice in “I Watch Her Eat the Apple”?

3. Which of the following is the first line of “How to Go to Dinner with a Brother on Drugs”?

4. Which of the following kinds of trees does the narrator report dreaming in “Monday Aubade”?

5. Which of the following is the first line of “As a Consequence of My Brother Stealing All the Lightbulbs”?

Short Essay Questions

1. In “Self-Portrait as a Chimera,” the narrator presents herself as facing execution. How does she relate herself to her lover as she does?

2. What music does the narrator claim to hear when her beloved eats an apple?

3. What reason does the narrator give for considering a skull in “Dome Riddle”?

4. What explanations are offered for the narrator’s brother’s arrests in “Downhill Triolets”?

5. What does the narrator posit might be the worst part of the funeral for her brother?

6. What hellish vision does the narrator’s mother see in “My Brother at 3 A.M.”?

7. What questions does the narrator ask in “Toward the Amaranth Gates of War or Love” (75)?

8. How is the room onto which “the door of your hip” opens in “Monday Aubade” described (83)?

9. How does the narrator report having interacted with Cortés in “Self-Portrait as a Chimera”?

10. What does the narrator explain at the end of “Soirée Fantastique”?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast any two of the poems in the collection in terms of overall effect. Attend not only to their formal features, but also to their content and its implications.

Essay Topic 2

What overall attitude towards family does the collection present? What in the text shows that presentation? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

What significance accrues to Mojave Barbie interacting with Skipper in “The Last Mojave Indian Barbie?” How does that significance emerge?

(see the answer keys)

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