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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does the editor describe the thought put into these poems?
(a) Microscopic.
(b) Exuberant.
(c) Omniscient.
(d) Effervescent.

2. What is Oliver's most commonly used literary device in these poems?
(a) Simile.
(b) Metaphor.
(c) Anthropomorphism.
(d) Allusion.

3. What time of day did the poet try to save the animal in The Measure?
(a) Afternoon.
(b) Morning.
(c) Night.
(d) Evening.

4. What does Oliver think people should pay more attention to in life?
(a) Passing.
(b) Living.
(c) Loving.
(d) Aging.

5. How many poems are in the first section?
(a) 42.
(b) 32.
(c) 52.
(d) 22.

6. What does Oliver compare picking the right words to in Mysteries, Four of the Simple Ones?
(a) Growing a garden.
(b) Threading a needle.
(c) Picking fruit.
(d) Sorting money.

7. What were the feet of the animal compared to in The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that comes First?
(a) Flowers.
(b) The Sun.
(c) Sand.
(d) Butter.

8. Which of these is a line from The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that comes First?
(a) Where can we turn for peace?
(b) Where does it go and why?
(c) How can we be as they?
(d) How does one see and turn away.

9. In The Measure, what does the author say we must do to fully experience life?
(a) Help one another.
(b) Give it a trial.
(c) Think of new directions.
(d) Discard safety.

10. What belongs to the animal in The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that comes First?
(a) The heavens.
(b) The life it has claimed.
(c) The earth and sky.
(d) The water.

11. Which of the following is not a place Oliver says she wants to be while writing her poems in Everything?
(a) A boat at sea.
(b) A spot of grass.
(c) Her own house.
(d) A field of daisies.

12. What is the main subject of Everything?
(a) Love.
(b) Nature.
(c) Poetry.
(d) Transcendance.

13. What style is Work Sometimes written in?
(a) Omniscient.
(b) Conversational.
(c) Second Person.
(d) First Person.

14. Which of these is a line from The Measure?
(a) Hush, be still.
(b) What shall we do?
(c) Ah, it's time.
(d) No, not now.

15. Why did Oliver choose the tone she did at the beginning of Work Sometimes?
(a) She wanted it to seem as though the conversation was already in place.
(b) She wanted the poem to flow easily.
(c) She wanted to set it apart from her other poems.
(d) She wanted to draw the reader in.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of these words is used by the editor to describe Oliver's style?

2. What does Oliver say is NOT praying in The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that comes First?

3. How is Oliver trying to establish the intimacy she desires in Work Sometimes?

4. What color were the eyes of the animal in The Real Prayers are Not the Words, but the Attention that comes First?

5. What is the turtle in Mysteries, Four of the Simple Ones, doing?

(see the answer keys)

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