Skills Tested on Exam
Read a literature passage and be able to:
- Describe the author’s tone/ attitude
- Describe a character using adjectives
- Identify lines/passages that capture a specific theme
- Explain the significance of an author’s choice of title
- Use a dictionary and context clues to determine a word’s meaning
- Identify lines/passages that reveal internal and external conflicts
Read an expository passage and be able to:
- Identify the author’s beliefs/opinions
- Draw conclusions based on statements made
- Identify author’s purpose
- Analyze how an author’s use of anecdotes and personal stories supports his/her ideas
- Identify the author’s main idea
Read a poem and be able to:
- Interpret symbols and their meaning
- Explain the effect figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, etc.) has on the poem
- Understand the relationship between symbols, imagery, diction, syntax and how they relate to the overall theme of the poem
Read a monologue and be able to:
- Identify theme
- Describe the speaker’s internal conflicts
Read an excerpt from a play and be able to:
- Interpret the use of figurative language and its purpose
- Understand how comments made by a character lend themselves to a character’s development
- Use text to support a character’s motives
- Understand how stage directions can be used to develop a character
- Explain how the comments of supporting characters develop the character of the protagonist
- Interpret how diction can develop elements of setting
- Understand how dialogue is used to explore a play’s theme
- Identify examples of dramatic irony and explain their relevance
Read a research paper and its attached works cited page and be able to:
- Identify its thesis statement
- Explain how included quotations support the thesis statement
- Correct errors in the paper’s parenthetical citations
PRACTICE QUESTIONS
Read the selection and answer the questions that follow.
“The Cricket War” - Bob Thurber
That summer an army of crickets started a war with my father. They picked a fight the minute they invaded our cellar. Dad didn't care for bugs much more than Mamma, but he could tolerate a few spiders and assorted creepy crawlers living in the basement. Every farm house had them. A part of rustic living, and something you needed to put up with if you wanted the simple life.
He told Mamma: Now that we’re living out here, you can’t be jerking your head and swallowing your gum over what's plain natural, Ellen. But she was a city girl through and through and had no ears when it came to defending vermin. She said a cricket was just a noisy cockroach, just a dumb horny bug that wouldn't shut up. She said in the city there were blocks of buildings overrun with cockroaches with no way for people to get rid of them. No sir, no way could she sleep with all that chirping going on; then to prove her point she wouldn't go to bed. She drank coffee and smoked my father’s cigarettes and she paced between the couch and the TV. Next morning she threatened to pack up and leave, so Dad drove to the hardware store and hurried back. He squirted poison from a jug with a spray nozzle. He sprayed the basement and all around the foundation of the house. When he was finished he told us that was the end of it.
But what he should have said was: This is the beginning, The beginning of our war, the beginning of our destruction. I often think back to that summer and try to imagine him delivering a speech with words like that, because for the next fourteen days Mamma kept finding dead crickets in the clean laundry. She’d shake out a towel or a sheet and a dead black cricket would roll across the linoleum. Sometimes the cat would corner one, and swat it around like he was playing hockey, then carry it away in his mouth. Dad said swallowing a few dead crickets wouldn't hurt as long as the cat didn't eat too many. Each time Mamma complained he told her it was only natural that we'd be finding a couple of dead ones for a while.
Soon live crickets started showing up in the kitchen and bathroom. Mamma freaked because she thought they were the dead crickets come back to haunt, but Dad said these were definitely a new batch, probably coming up on the pipes. He fetched his jug of poison and sprayed beneath the sink and behind the toilet and all along the baseboard until the whole house smelled of poison, and then he sprayed the cellar again, and then he went outside and sprayed all around the foundation leaving a foot-wide moat of poison. Stop them son of a bitches right in their tracks, he told us.
For a couple of weeks we went back to finding dead crickets in the laundry. Dad told us to keep a sharp look out. He suggested that we'd all be better off to hide as many as we could from Mamma. I fed a few dozen to the cat who I didn't like because he scratched and bit for no reason. I hoped the poison might kill him so we could get a puppy. Once in a while we found a dead cricket in the bathroom or beneath the kitchen sink. We didn't know if these were fresh dead or old dead the cat had played with and then abandoned. Dad cracked a few in half to show us that they were fresh. Then he used the rest of the poison to give the house another dose. A couple of weeks later, when both live and dead crickets kept turning up, he emptied the cellar of junk. He borrowed Uncle Burt's pickup and hauled a load to the dump. Then he burned a lot of bundled newspapers and magazines which he said the crickets had turned into nests.
He stood over that fire with a rake in one hand and a garden hose in the other. He wouldn't leave it even when Mamma sent me out to fetch him for supper. He wouldn't leave the fire, and she wouldn't put supper on the table. Both my brothers were crying. Finally she went out and got him herself. And while we ate, the wind lifted some embers onto the wood pile. The only gasoline was in the lawn mower’s fuel tank but that was enough to create an explosion big enough to reach the house. Once the roof caught, there wasn't much anyone could do.
After the fire trucks left I made the mistake of volunteering to stay behind while Mamma took the others to Aunt Gail's. I helped Dad and Uncle Burt and two men I'd never seen before carry things out of the house and stack them by the road. In the morning we'd come back in Burt's truck and haul everything away. We worked into the night and we didn't talk much, hardly a word about anything that mattered, and Dad didn't offer any plan that he might have for us now. Uncle Burt passed a bottle around, but I shook my head when it came to me. I kicked and picked through the mess, dumb struck at how little there was to salvage, while all around the roar of crickets magnified our silence. *********
- Read these lines from the passage.
Every farm house had them. A part of rusticliving, and something you needed to put up with if you wanted
the simple life.
What is the meaning of the word rustic in this sentence?
A.covered in rust
B.suitable for the country
C.in a busy part of the city
D.unusual
- Read these lines from the passage.
“had no ears when it came to defending vermin.”
What is the meaning of the word vermin in this sentence?
A.bad mannered people
B.homeless people
C.small common animals that are difficult to control
D.an alcoholic beverage
3. Which of the following lines from the story represent the story’s main conflict?
A.“That summer an army of crickets started a war with my father. They picked a fight the minute they invaded our cellar.”
B.“To prove her point, she wouldn’t go to bed. She drank coffee and smoked my father’s cigarettes and she paced between the couch and the TV.”
C.“...because for the next fourteen days Mamma kept finding dead crickets in the clean laundry.”
D.“Sometimes the cat would corner one, and swat it around like he was playing hockey, then carry it away in his mouth.”
4. From the story you can conclude that
A.the crickets won the war.
B.Dad and Mamma moved back to the city.
C.the poison Dad bought did not work.
D.the cat died in the fire.
5. Which statement best expresses the significance of the title “The Cricket War”?
A. The title symbolizes the narrator’s feelings that, like the draft, sometimes unwanted tasks become
an obligation.
B. The title is an ironic reference to how easily the crickets were eliminated and how peacefully they
retreated.
C. The title represents how getting rid of the crickets became a series of battles that ultimately
destroyed their home.
D. The title foreshadows that though this “battle” is over, the “war” is not, and that the family will get
revenge against the crickets eventually.
6. Which line from the story BEST captures the theme of “choose your battles wisely”?
- “Dad didn't care for bugs much more than Mamma, but he could tolerate a few spiders and
assorted creepy crawlers living in the basement. Every farm house had them. A part of rustic living, and something you needed to put up with if you wanted the simple life.”
- “Soon live crickets started showing up in the kitchen and bathroom.”
- “Mamma freaked because she thought they were the dead crickets come back to haunt us, but Dad said these were definitely a new batch, probably coming up on the pipes.”
- “He stood over that fire with a rake in one hand and a garden hose in the other. He wouldn't leave it even when Mamma sent me out to fetch him for supper.”
7. Which adjective BEST describes Papa?
A. lazy
B. determined
C. imaginative
D. forgiving
8. Which words BEST describe the speaker’s tone, or attitude, toward his family’s battle with the crickets?
A. angry and bitter
B. watchful and curious
C. depressed and confused
D. excited and expectant
Read the selection and answer the questions that follow.
From “The Most Dangerous Game” – Richard Connell
(In this short story, the protagonist Rainsford (a celebrated hunter) falls overboard from a yacht that is sailing through the Caribbean Sea. He manages to swim to a nearby island where walks to a large mansion and meets General Zaroff, and his servant Ivan, who make a past time of hunting human men on the island. As a game, Zaroffgives each man minimal supplies and the opportunity to evade him for 3 days. If he cannot find and kill the man by the end of the third day, then he allows the man to leave the island. It is the end of the third day and Rainsford has managed so far to evade Zaroff, but now he is closing in on him…)
“At daybreak Rainsford, lying near the swamp, was awakened by the sound that made him know that he had new things to learn about fear. It was a distant sound, faint and wavering, but he knew it. It was the baying of a pack of hounds.
Rainsford knew he could do one of two things. He could stay where he was and wait. That was suicide. He could flee. That was postponing the inevitable. For a moment he stood there, thinking. An idea that held a wild chance came to him, and, tightening his belt, he headed away from the swamp.
The baying of the hounds grew nearer, nearer, ever nearer. On a ridge Rainsford climbed a tree. Down a watercourse, not a quarter of a mile off, he could see the bush moving. Straining his eyes, he saw the lean figure of General Zaroff; just ahead of him, Rainsford made out another figure whose wide shoulders surged through the tall jungle weeds; it was the giant Ivan, and he seemed pulled forward by some unseen force; Rainsford knew that Ivan must be holding the pack in leash.
They would be on him any minute now. His mind worked franctically. He thought of a native trick he had learned in Uganda. He slid down the tree. He caught hold of a springy young sapling, and to it he fastened his hunting knife, with the blade pointing down the trail; with a bit of wild grapevine he tied back the sapling. Then he ran for his life. The hounds raised their voices as they hit the fresh scent. Rainsford knew now how an animal at bay feels.
He had to stop to get his breath. The baying of the hounds stopped abruptly, and Rainsford’s heart stopped, too. They must have reached the knife.
He shinned excitedly up a tree and looked back. His pursuers had stopped. But the hope that was in Rainsford’s brain when he climbed died, for he saw in the shallow valley that General Zaroff was still on his feet. But Ivan was not. The knife, driven by the recoil of the springing tree, had not wholly failed.
Rainsford had hardly tumbled to the ground when the pack took up the cry again.
‘Nerve, nerve, nerve!’ he panted, as he dashed along. A blue gap showed between the trees dead ahead. Ever nearer drew the hounds. Rainsford forced himself on toward that gap. He reached it. It was the shore of the sea. Across the cove he could see the gloomy gray stone of the chateau. Twenty feet below him the sea rumbled and hissed. Rainsford hesitated. He heard the hounds. Then he leaped far out into the sea…
When the general and his pack reached the place by the sea, the Cossack stopped. For some minutes he stood regarding the blue-green expanse of water. He shrugged his shoulders. Then he sat down, took a drink of brandy from a silver flask, lit a perfumed cigarette, and hummed a bit from Madama Butterfly” (Connell 56 – 57).
10. Which line BEST reveals the internal conflict of the narrator?
A. “Rainsford had tumbled to the ground when the pack took up the cry again.”
B. “He thought of a native trick he had learned in Uganda.”
C. “’Nerve, nerve, nerve!’ he panted, as he dashed along.”
D. “The baying of the hounds grew nearer, nearer, ever nearer”
11. Read the following line from the passage:
“Twenty feet below him the sea rumbled and hissed.”
What is the effect of the personification in this line?
- It parrallels the hunger knawing away at Rainsford himself.
- It reminds us that the sea is also an enemy by giving it predator-like characteristics.
- It foreshadows the tragic ending of the story.
- It creates a peaceful mood in the story.
12. Read the following line from the passage:
“The baying of the hounds grew nearer, nearer, ever nearer..”
What is the effect of the author using repetition in this line?
- It parallels the repetitive nature of the hunt.
- It reminds us that this is the climax of the story.
- It foreshadows Rainsford’s capture by the hounds.
- It creates a sense of panic and urgency in the mood of the story.
13. Which line from the story most strongly suggests that Rainsford thinks clearly under pressure?
- He shinned excitedly up a tree and looked back.
- They would be on him any minute now. His mind worked franctically. He thought of a native trick he had learned in Uganda.
- ‘Nerve, nerve, nerve!’ he panted, as he dashed along.
- Then he leaped far out into the sea…
Visiting the Museum of Modern Art
A rush of museum visitors
swirl past me as I sit on the floor,
like a rock in a river, to study this painting.
I am the only one who stopped.
A spill of yellow, cymbals, a cacophony
of color splutters and spins,
pulling my eye down the canvas
of this strange, mesmerizing painting.
Hidden in the bottom corner, a clue, a hint,
a surprising shadow. I catch my breath,
feeling as if I've received an invitation
to another world, an other-world.
How is this possible? How did the artist
beckon me inside an open door?
I feel as if I'm all alone in the museum,
walking across a threshold,
stepping into a space I've been before.
Suddenly I'm seeing
the crush of a crowded subway train,
a sparrow beating against a windowpane,
rubber ducks and roller coaster rides,
my grandmother's old house, a long-lost dog,
a wind-up frog I've nearly forgotten.
The guard tells me to move along,
the museum is closing. I leave knowing
I'll be back tomorrow to step inside
the mysteries of a painting titled:
You Decide.