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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What technique is used in line 470, "For sharply he did think to reprehend her"?
(a) Inversion.
(b) Euphemism.
(c) Epigram.
(d) Cacophony.

2. What color is most prominent in the description of Venus kneeling before Adonis and putting her hand on his cheek?
(a) Red.
(b) White.
(c) Purple.
(d) Blue.

3. What "circuit" is Venus referring to when she tells Adonis "I have hemm’d thee here/ Within the circuit of this ivory pale" (lines 229-230)?
(a) A ring of flowers.
(b) Her arms.
(c) The field.
(d) Her heart.

4. What is the "copse" mentioned in line 259?
(a) A valley.
(b) A small barn.
(c) A stand of trees.
(d) A fenced area.

5. How does Adonis react to Venus's comparison of herself to a park?
(a) With compassion.
(b) With desire.
(c) With laughter.
(d) With contempt.

6. Which techniques are used in lines 267-268, "The bearing earth with his hard hoof he wounds/ Whose hollow womb resounds like heaven’s thunder"?
(a) Diacope and onomatopoeia.
(b) Onomatopoeia and metaphor.
(c) Metaphor and alliteration.
(d) Alliteration and diacope.

7. How does Adonis view romantic love?
(a) He thinks it is chaotic and burdensome,
(b) He thinks it should be reserved for marriage.
(c) He thinks it elevates a person spiritually.
(d) He thinks it is frightening and dangerous.

8. What is the definition of "recketh" in the line "What recketh he his rider’s angry stir" (line 283)?
(a) Considers.
(b) Ignores.
(c) Angers.
(d) Ruins.

9. What techniques are used in lines 417 and 418, "If springing things be any jot diminish’d,/ They wither in their prime, prove nothing worth"?
(a) Personification and inversion.
(b) Inversion and contraction.
(c) Contraction and simile.
(d) Simile and personification.

10. What does Adonis do just before he turns his head away from Venus's kiss?
(a) Smiles.
(b) Shudders.
(c) Moans.
(d) Winks.

11. When Venus shakes her head and then Adonis's hand, looks at him and then at the ground, what is it most reasonable to infer about her motivation?
(a) She is attempting to distract Adonis from her real intentions.
(b) She is too shy to explain to Adonis exactly what she wants from him.
(c) She is having second thoughts about her confession of love.
(d) She is too distraught to know how to proceed.

12. What is the "jennet" that appears in line 260?
(a) A flower.
(b) A bird.
(c) A fox.
(d) A horse.

13. What causes Venus to fall to the ground, unconscious?
(a) Adonis pushes her roughly away from him.
(b) Adonis tells her that he will never love her or even desire her.
(c) She has a premonition of the words Adonis is about to speak.
(d) She is overcome by the heat from the sun.

14. What does the speaker compare to caves?
(a) Venus's eyes.
(b) Adonis's dimples.
(c) Venus's arguments.
(d) Adonis's heart and mind.

15. Which technique is used in lines 221 and 222, "And now she weeps, and now she fain would speak/ And now her sobs do her intendments break"?
(a) Anadiplosis.
(b) Anaphora.
(c) Paralepsis.
(d) Chiasmus.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Adonis mean when he tells Venus that she can stop her tears and flattery, because in his heart, "they make no batt’ry" (line 426).

2. To what does Venus compare her own lips when she says that Adonis's lips are "sweet seals in my soft lips imprinted" (line 511)?

3. Which is the most reasonable interpretation of Venus's characterization of Adonis as having a "mermaid's voice" (line 429)?

4. What technique is used in line 432, "Ear’s deep sweet music, and heart’s deep sore wounding"?

5. What technique is used in line 111, "Strong-temper’d steel his stronger strength obey’d"?

(see the answer keys)

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