Diving into the Wreck Quizzes

Diving into the Wreck Quiz

1 What does the speaker do before diving into the wreck?
Come up with a list of items she would like to find

Research its history

Think about the value of poetry

Read "the book of myths"
2 Which of the following is *not* a possible interpretation of "the book of myths" the speaker readers?
Ovid's Metamorphoses

a symbol for history

a book of cultural myths

literal books about history
3 Why does the speaker carry a camera?
To see if it will work underwater

As a weight to remind her of her heavy task

To document her voyage

To take selfies
4 How can we best interpret the speaker's carrying a knife?
To scare other divers away

To cut through reeds

To defend herself against danger

In case of shark attacks
5 What is the form of the poem?
Sonnet

Free verse

Vilanelle

Sestina
6 Who was Jacques Costeau?
A noted physican

A french diver, documentarian, and inventory of scuba gear

A 19th-century poet

The speaker's ex-husband
7 Which of the following is *not* a detail that establishes the poem's maritime setting?
The speaker's flippers

blue-black water

A ladder leading from the boat into the water

The taste of salt in the air
8 How can you interpret the detail that the speaker "crawl[s] like an insect" into the ocean?
She feels creepy

The task ahead of her makes her feel small

She wants to emphasize that, like an insect, she has an exoskeleton

Like an insect, she is part of a colony
9 What is the speaker looking for as she dives into the wreck?
The remains of loved ones

Evidence of a crime

A hidden treasure

The truth
10 Which of the following is *not* a way the wreck is described?
As the ruins of a romantic relationship

As a person with a flank and face

"the thing itself and not the myth"

"The disaster"
11 After the speaker's dive, which of the following does she see?
manta rays

reeds and fish

the furniture that was on the ship

eels
12 How can we interpret the speaker's identification with the mermaid?
Her enthrallment with the world of imagination and fantasy

An identification with all women

Evidence of her lesbian separatism

A show of mourning
13 Why does the speaker begin to use "we" in stanza seven?
Her friends have joined her

She is literally exploring alongside the mermaid and merman

To show solidarity with all those who have been erased from history

She refers to the whole history of women authors
14 How can we interpret the speaker's claim that "we are the half-destroyed instruments"?
There are ruined musical instruments on the ship

Poets are not thought to be useful

"we" have all been half-destroyed by the violence of history, symbolized by the shipwreck

Rich is comparing herself to tools like the compass and barometer
15 How can we interpret the metaphor of the shipwreck?
It is a metaphor for men's violence against women

It is a metaphor for the low status of poetry

Is it a metaphor for a relationship gone wrong

It is a metaphor for history
16 What does the speaker mean when she says she carries "a book of myths in which our names do not appear"?
She was left out of the book by a hostile biographer.

The book doesn't contain any names because it is trying to report only on the science of the shipwreck.

Women's names to do not appear in the history books.

The book is too old to contain a record of her birth.

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