View a FREE sample

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 section of “Downhill Triolets”?

2. Which of the following is the first line of “No More Cake Here”?

3. Which of the following does the narrator include among “the perpetual exhibits” in her parents’ home (46)?

4. To which of the following does the narrator compare herself in “How to Go to Dinner with a Brother on Drugs”?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. What reaction does the narrator have to her brother appearing as a Judas effigy in “How to Go to Dinner with a Brother on Drugs”?

5. What does the narrator report her parents seek to become in “As a Consequence of My Brother Stealing All the Lightbulbs”?

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

7. How does the narrator of “I Lean Out the Window and She Nods Off in Bed, the Needle Gently Rocking on the Bedside Table” note having been created?

8. What is the concluding couplet of “Lorca’s Red Dresses”?

9. How does the narrator of “I Lean Out the Window and She Nods Off in Bed, the Needle Gently Rocking on the Bedside Table” report painting her lover’s arms?

10. How does the narrator of “When the Beloved Asks, ‘What Would You Do if You Woke Up and I Was a Shark?’” note answering the question of the title?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What attitude toward shame does the collection note? What in the text indicates that attitude? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

What is implied by the repeated assignations between Mojave Barbie and Ken? What gives rise to the implication? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

Many of the poems in the collection work well both with and without the inclusion of their title lines in the text. For any one of the poems in the collection, how does the reading change if the title is included as part of the main text of the poem?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 816 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample