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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 7 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where does the speaker say she obtained her gifts?
(a) From well-chosen friends.
(b) From the passage of time.
(c) From effort and hard work.
(d) From her ancestors.

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

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

4. What technique does the first line of the poem, "You may write me down in history," introduce?
(a) Allegory.
(b) Verbal irony.
(c) Apostrophe.
(d) Catalog.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What technique is used in line 21, "You may shoot me with your words"?

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

3. Which is the most logical description of who "You" is in line 1?

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

5. Which is the first stanza of the poem that is longer than four lines?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the pattern that stanzas 2, 4, 5, and 7 have in common.

2. What do all of the questions the speaker asks have in common?

3. What specific historical phenomenon does the speaker talk about rising above in the final two stanzas, and what allusion does she use to introduce the topic?

4. Describe how the final two stanzas of the poem differ from the first seven stazas.

5. Why is the poem titled "Still I Rise" and not just "I Rise"--what additional idea does the word "Still" convey?

6. In the final stanza, what metaphor does the speaker use, and what does it signify?

7. What oppressive actions does the speaker suggest "you" might take, and how does she say she will respond?

(see the answer keys)

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