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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. In "That Which Cannot Be Stilled," what does the speaker say can "make you clean" (42)?
(a) Rain.
(b) Grief.
(c) Sand.
(d) Ash.

2. In "Ode to the Beloved's Hips," what is a "traje de luces"?
(a) The many-colored coat worn by Joseph in the Bible.
(b) The traditional clothing worn by Spanish bullfighters.
(c) The white robes worn by Catholic bishops.
(d) The flashy costumes worn by Mexican luchadores.

3. In "If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas Desert," what does the speaker say her "lasso" is made of?
(a) Water.
(b) Breath.
(c) Light.
(d) Desire.

4. In "The First Water Is the Body," what word does the speaker borrow from John Berger?
(a) "Submerge."
(b) "Juxtaposition."
(c) "Pre-verbal."
(d) "Channeled."

5. In "The Cure for Melancholy Is to Take the Horn," what Russian-American poet is quoted?
(a) Joseph Brodsky.
(b) Peter Orlovsky.
(c) Walter Benton.
(d) Vladimir Nabokov.

Short Answer Questions

1. From its context in "Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball," what can be assumed about the Hotchkiss and Springfield Model 1873?

2. In "Isn't the Air Also a Body, Moving?" what does the speaker compare breathing to?

3. In "Snake-Light," what letter does the speaker say was once just the image of a snake?

4. In "Snake-Light," what is the rhetorical purpose of mentioning the butterflies?

5. In "Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball," what kind of food is mentioned twice?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "How the Milky Way Was Made," what does the speaker say about Coyote?

2. What two conceits are central to "If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas Desert"?

3. In "That Which Cannot Be Stilled," what happens when the speaker goes to the hospital for a panic attack?

4. Explain the metaphor "Transubstantiation bone--hips of bread,/ wine-whet thighs" in "Ode to the Beloved's Hips" (37).

5. In "I, Minotaur," to what plant does the speaker compare herself, and why?

6. In "Snake-Light," what does the speaker say happens when the word "Hikwiir" is said aloud (84)?

7. In "It Was the Animals," what does the speaker's guest tell her the inscription is, and what is it in reality?

8. In the opening of "Snake-Light," what does the speaker literally see in the desert, and to what does she compare it?

9. In "Isn't the Air Also a Body, Moving?" what leads the speaker to call the train caboose the best part of a train?

10. What is the setting of "Waist and Sway," and how is its setting unusual for this collection?

(see the answer keys)

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