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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does the speaker characterize herself in line 4?
(a) Lively and confident.
(b) Intelligent and curious.
(c) Lighthearted and silly.
(d) Brave and perseverent.

2. What precious stones does the speaker use to evoke beauty and value in the simile in line 27?
(a) Rubies.
(b) Diamonds.
(c) Sapphires.
(d) Emeralds.

3. What technique is used in line 29, "Out of the huts of history’s shame"?
(a) Juxtaposition.
(b) Oxymoron.
(c) Allusion.
(d) Allegory.

4. Who is the author of "Still I Rise"?
(a) Maya Angelou.
(b) Toni Morrison.
(c) Alice Walker.
(d) Nikki Giovanni.

5. Which is the most logical description of who "You" is in line 1?
(a) An unnamed oppressor.
(b) A romantic partner.
(c) Scholars and critics.
(d) People of the past.

6. What words create a refrain in the final two stanzas of the poem?
(a) "Still I rise."
(b) "I rise."
(c) "I rise and rise."
(d) "Again I rise."

7. What kind of "certainty" does the speaker claim to have in line 10?
(a) The "certainty of springtime."
(b) The "certainty of air."
(c) The "certainty of history."
(d) The "certainty of tides."

8. Which technique is used in line 9, "Just like moons and like suns"?
(a) Euphemism.
(b) Parallelism.
(c) Dialect.
(d) Allusion.

9. In line 17, what kind of a person is described by the word "haughtiness"?
(a) Arrogant and proud.
(b) Strange and eccentric.
(c) Sneaky and dishonest.
(d) Mean-spirited and petty.

10. Which is the first stanza of the poem that is longer than four lines?
(a) 9.
(b) 6.
(c) 7.
(d) 8.

11. What techniques are used in line 19, "’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines"?
(a) Onomatopoeia and alliteration.
(b) Sibilance and onomatopoeia.
(c) Assonance and sibilance.
(d) Alliteration and assonance.

12. Which technique is frequently used at the beginnings of stanzas?
(a) Internal rhyme.
(b) Rhetorical question.
(c) Onomatopoeia.
(d) Cacophony.

13. What technique is used in line 21, "You may shoot me with your words"?
(a) Simile.
(b) Kenning.
(c) Metaphor.
(d) Innuendo.

14. Why is the speaker's past "rooted in pain" (line 32)?
(a) Because of bigotry and discrimination.
(b) Because of the death of a loved one.
(c) Because no one appreciates her value.
(d) Because she has been abandoned by someone she loves.

15. What is the primary quality that the speaker's stanza eight description of a body of water is intended to convey?
(a) Independence.
(b) Endurance.
(c) Persistence.
(d) Power.

Short Answer Questions

1. What technique is used in lines 7 and 8, "’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells/ Pumping in my living room"?

2. Where does the speaker say she obtained her gifts?

3. What is the rhyme scheme of the first seven stanzas?

4. Which two things does the final stanza use to represent the past and present?

5. In the final quatrain, what does the speaker wonder about upsetting "you" with?

(see the answer keys)

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