Figurative Language Poem Final Exam Practice
Directions: Read and annotate the questions, then read and annotate the poem for answers. Circle the best choice.
Operating RoomByJohn Reed
Sunlightfloods the shiny many-windowed place,
Coldly glinting on flawless steel under glass,
And blaring imperially on the spattered gules1
Where kneeling men grunt as they swab the floor.
Startled eyes of nurses swish by noiselessly,
Orderlies2 with cropped heads swagger like murderers;
And three surgeons, robed and masked mysteriously,
Lounge gossiping of guts, and wish it were lunch-time.
Beyond the porcelain door, screaming mounts crescendo3—
Case 4001 coming out of the ether,
Born again half a man, to spend his life in bed. /
1. The color red
2. An hospital attendant responsible for the nonmedical care of patients, order, and cleanliness
3. A gradual increase in loudness or intensity
Sample Exam Questions
1. Which choice best summarizes the tone of the poem?
A. The speaker’s tone is clinical, serious, somber. The speaker treats the grim subject of this poem with an objective and clinical callousness.
B. The speaker’s tone is light and playful. The speaker uses humor to address the situation in an operating room.
C. The speaker’s tone is ironic. The speaker glorifies the hospital personnel as heroic while patients suffer.
D. The speaker’s tone is nostalgic. The details of a hospital operating room are described wistfully and positively.
2. Which choice best identifies metaphor in the passage?
A. “Coldly glinting on flawless steel under glass”
B. “Startled eyes of nurses swish by noiselessly”
C. “Case 4001 coming out of the ether,/Born again half a man”
D. “Orderlies with cropped heads swagger like murderers”
3. Which choice best identifies simile in the passage?
A. “Where kneeling men grunt as they swab the floor”
B. “Orderlies with cropped heads swagger like murderers”
C. “Sunlight floods the shiny many-windowed place”
D. There are no similes in the poem
4. What inference can be made about Case 4001 in the third stanza?
A. Case 4001 is a figment of the surgeon’s imagination due to ether inhalation.
B. Case 4001 is a symbol of the failures of the healthcare industry.
C. Case 4001 is in the midst of a minor surgical procedure.
D. Case 4001 is a patient who is awakening from an ether induced sleep. He is beginning to realize that he may never walk again.
5. Which passage is textual evidence for number 4?
A. “And three surgeons, robed and masked mysteriously / Lounge gossiping of guts, and wish it were lunch-time”
B. “Born again half a man, to spend his life in bed.”
C. “Sunlight floods the shiny many-windowed place / Coldly glinting on flawless steel under glass”
D. “Beyond the porcelain door, screaming mounts crescendo”
6. The author’s use of the phrase “to spend his life in bed” best summarizes which poetic/literary device?
A. Metaphor B. Simile C. Hyperbole D. Irony
7. Which statement best summarizes the central ideas addressed in the poem?
A. This poem is about an operating room in a hospital. Sunlight is pouring into the room, the staff is walking by, surgeons are talking about their work, and a man awakens to realize that he will never walk again.
B. This poem is about a doctor questioning his abilities to save a patient. The hospital is chaotic with activity as the doctor frantically decides to perform an amputation.
C. This poem is a commentary on the role women play in the medical field. Female nurses are relegated to menial tasks while male surgeons perform the serious surgical procedures.
8. The author’s use of ______point of view functions to ______.
A. 1st person; give of the perspective of the patients.
B. 3rd person; provide the reader with a broad impression of several different “scenes” in a hospital and reveal the thoughts of a few characters.