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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. What is the most reasonable interpretation of what Venus means when she asks "Where did I leave?” and Adonis replies “No matter where" (line 715)?
(a) She is asking what she was saying before her train of thought was interrupted.
(b) She is asking where Adonis intends to go once he leaves her that evening.
(c) She is asking where she and Adonis were when she first told him that he could leave for the night.
(d) She is asking Adonis to explain what he means when he accuses her of wanting to leave.

2. What does line 972 compare to "many clouds consulting for foul weather"?
(a) The years Venus will live without Adonis.
(b) The events leading to Adonis's death.
(c) The howling dogs.
(d) Venus's emotions.

3. What does Venus mean when she says, in lines 649 and 650, "For where love reigns, disturbing jealousy/ Doth call himself affection’s sentinel"?
(a) When a person is in love, jealousy sounds frequent alarms.
(b) When a person is ruled by love, other relationships suffer.
(c) Love upsets jealousy because it considers affection more important.
(d) Love is stronger than jealousy and can preserve affection against it.

4. What technique is used in line 640, "They that thrive well, take counsel of their friends"?
(a) Aphorism.
(b) Apostrophe.
(c) Antimetabole.
(d) Paralepsis.

5. What does Adonis tell Venus he primarily objects to about her professions of love?
(a) They are unfeminine.
(b) They are embarrassing.
(c) They are callous.
(d) They are dishonest.

Short Answer Questions

1. In line 1032, whose eyes does the speaker compare to "stars asham’d of day"?

2. What technique is used in lines 693 and 694, "Ceasing their clamorous cry, till they have singled/ With much ado the cold fault cleanly out"?

3. What technique is used in line 1141, "It shall be fickle, false and full of fraud"?

4. What does Venus say the boar is looking for with its "downward eye" (line 1106)?

5. What characteristic of the boar does Venus's description primarily stress?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is ironic about the description of the colors around the boar's mouth?

2. How does the construction of line 832, "Passion on passion deeply is redoubled," mimic the sense of what is happening in this passage?

3. What does Venus say about death when she thinks that Adonis has died?

4. What does Venus tell Adonis about his beauty and the boar?

5. What happens to Adonis's body at the end of the poem, and how does Venus respond?

6. How does Adonis contrast love and lust?

7. What is the meaning of Venus's comments about veils and bonnets after Adonis's death?

8. After Adonis's death, what does Venus predict about love?

9. What conclusion does Venus reach about why the boar killed Adonis, and what does this cause her to reflect about her own behavior?

10. Why does Venus say that nature should be convicted of treason, and what is Cynthia's plan to thwart what nature has done?

(see the answer keys)

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