Name: _______________

English 9 Honors: Midterm Study Guide

Vocabulary:
Below you will find 60 potential words that may appear on your midterm. My suggestion
is that you use the space below to write a quick or shortened definition that will help you
remember and recognize the word if it appears on your exam. The format of vocabulary
questions on your midterm will be the same that you are used to from your biweekly
quizzes, including definition matching, fill-in-the-blanks, choosing the right word, and
synonym/antonym matching.

 Unit 1 Words:
o Admonish
o Commandeer
o Cumbersome
o Dilemma
o Efface
o Muddle
o Opinionated
o Predispose
o Relinquish
o Spurious

 Unit 2 Words:
o Adjourn
o Alien
o Comely
o Feint
o Fortify
o Illegible
o Lucrative
o Mediocre
o Sully
o Terse

 Unit 3 Words:
 o Abridge
o Adherent
o Cherubic
o Condone
o Eminent
o Fabricate
o Pauper
o Pilfer
o Semblance
o Trite

 Unit 4 Words:
o Access
o Anarchy
o Arduous
o Daunt
o Fated
o Hoodwink
o Inanimate
o Pliant
o Pompous
o Rectify

 Unit 5 Words:
o Accomplice
o Arbitrary
o Brazen
o Exodus
o Incorrigible
o Morose
o Prattle
o Rebut
 o Reprimand
o Servitude

 Unit 6 Words:
o Atone
o Credible
o Defray
o Doleful
o Ghastly
o Incessant
o Intricate
o Posthumous
o Superfluous
o Tenacious

Grammar:
Your midterm exam will have a grammar section, which will include the aspects of
grammar we have reviewed so far this semester. You can expect to see Parts of
Speech, Types of Sentences, and Fragment/Run-on/Complete Sentence Identification.
To review for this, please be sure that you know all of these terms, and how to identify
them correctly in sentences based on the activities that we completed during class.

To help you, define the following in a short phrase:

 Parts of Speech:
o Noun:
o Pronoun:
o Verb:
o Adjective:
o Adverb:
o Preposition:
o Conjunction:
o Interjection:

 Types of Sentences:
 o Declarative:
o Imperative:
o Interrogative:
o Exclamatory:

 Sentence Errors:
o Complete Sentence:
o Fragment:
o Run-On:

 Parts of a Sentence:
o Subject:
o Predicate:
PSAT-Style Questions:
On the midterm you will have several questions that are in the PSAT format, where you
will be asked to either enhance or correct the errors in a sentence. These questions will
serve to test your knowledge of basic grammar, sentence structure, correction
methods/styles, and syntax, as well as ensure that you are fully reading each question
and all of its possible answers. All of the devices used in this section will be review of
items either discussed in this or previous English classes. To review for this portion, I
suggest that you look through the review materials that you were provided with your
PSAT score report or ones found on similar websites.

(Unfamiliar) Reading Passage and Comprehension Questions:

On the midterm you will have several short reading passages that will be accompanied
by comprehension questions, which will assess whether or not you actually understood
what you read in the short passages. My suggestion is that as you read through the
passages, underline (or if you have a highlighter, you may use that) the parts that you
find to be most important. It also may help you to read the questions first, and then go
back and read the passages, so that you know what type of information you are looking
for. The reading passages that will appear on your midterm will be ones that have
appeared on grade-appropriate standardized assessments so that you can begin to
familiarize yourself with the types of passages that will reappear on these examinations
when you take them next year.

(Familiar) Reading Passage and Comprehension Questions:

On the midterm you will see the following excerpt from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury,
followed by a series of reading comprehension questions that will ask you about various
literary elements seen in the quote. My suggestion is that you read the passage carefully
and complete the SOAPSTone Chart that follows; this chart will help you to organize all
of the essential information that is discussed in the excerpt. Since you are already
familiar with this quote (and the book as a whole), the comprehension questions will
assess your ability to relate your knowledge by using literary terms, which should
already be familiar to you.

Fahrenheit 451: Part Three: Burning Bright (page 165-167)

Granger looked into the fire. “Phoenix.”
“What?”
“There was a silly damn bird called a phoenix back before Christ, every
few hundred years he bult a pyre and burnt himself up. He must have been first
cousin to Man. But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he
got himself born all over again. And it looks like we’re doing the same thing, over
and over, but we’ve got one damn silly thing the phoenix never had. We know the
damn silly thing we just did. We know all the damn silly things we’ve done for a
thousand years and as long as we know that and always have it around where
we can see it, someday we’ll stop making goddam funeral pyres and jumping in
the middle of them. We pick up a few more people that remember every
generation.” …
“Now, let’s get on upstream,” said Granger. “And hold onto one thought:
You’re not important. You’re not anything. Someday the load we’re carrying with
us may help someone. But even when we had the books on hand, a long time
ago, we didn’t use what we got out of them. We went right on insulting the dead.
We went right on spitting in the graves of all the poor ones who died before us.
We’re going to meet a lot of lonely people in the next week and the next month
and the next year. And when they ask us what we’re doing, you can say, We’re
remembering. That’s where we’ll win out in the long run. And someday we’ll
remember so much that we’ll build the biggest goddam steamshovel in history
and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war in and cover it up. Come on
now, we’re going to go build a mirror factory first and put out nothing but mirrors
for the next year and take a long look in them.” …
But now there was a long morning’s walk until noon, and if the men were
silent it was because there was everything to think about and much to remember.
Perhaps later in the morning, when the sun was up and had warmed them, they
would begin to talk, or just say the things they remembered, to be sure that they
were there, to be absolutely certain that things were safe in them. Montag felt the
slow stir of words, the slow simmer. And when it came his turn, what could he
say, what could he offer on a day like this, to make the trip a little easier? To
everything there is a season. Yes. A time to break down, and a time to build up.
 Yes. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak. Yes, all that. But what else.
What else? Something, something…
And on either side of the river was there a tree of life, which bare twelve
manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; And the leaves of the tree
were for the healing of nations.
Yes, thought Montag, that’s the one I’ll save for noon. For noon…
When we reach the city.
SOAPSTone Chart

Speaker
(the voice(s)
that is heard in
the passage)

Occasion
(the time and
place/setting
of the
passage)

Audience
(who is it
written for;
who is
supposed to
read it?)

Purpose
(why was it
written; what is
its function?)

Subject
(what is it
about?)

Tone
(what is
emotion
conveyed in or
overall mood
of the
passage?)

Miscellaneous (any other

Information information
about the
passage that
may be
useful/helpful
to your
understanding)

Essay Prompts:
Below you will find 2 potential essay prompts, one of which will be part of your actual
exam. My suggestion is that you brainstorm some ideas/notes about each prompt, so
that no matter which prompt you are given you have some sense of how to respond to it.
To give you ample time to address both this written response and the rest of the exam,
you will complete this portion of the midterm in advance of the actual exam block. On
that day, you will be provided with a prompt, graphic organizer (Venn Diagram), and will
have the option to either handwrite or type your multi-paragraph response.

Format:
 ¶1: Introduce your main ideas in 1-2 sentences, and then
focus the remaining 4-5 sentences on text one
 ¶2: Discuss text two in 5-6 sentences
 ¶3: Compare and contrast the ideas from both texts in 5-6
sentences, and then conclude your essay in 1-2 sentences

o Potential Prompt #1: Coming of Age

 Throughout the course of first semester, you have read four
distinct works (Selections form 154th Street Short Stories, To
Kill a Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 451, and a few short stories
from the Illustrated Man) that have the central theme of
coming of age (or enlightenment). Your task is to discuss
how this theme was seen in at least two of these works, and
then compare and contrast this notion in an essay of no less
than 3 paragraphs. In doing this, you should first define (in
your own words) what coming of age (or enlightenment) is,
then discuss the two works individually, and finally
compare/contrast them with the concept of coming of age as
the central focus of your entire essay.

o Potential Prompt #2: Adversity

 Throughout the course of first semester, you have read four
distinct works (Selections form 154th Street Short Stories, To
Kill a Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 451, and a few short stories
from the Illustrated Man) that have the central theme of
adversity. Your task is to discuss how this theme was seen
in at least two of these works, and then compare and
contrast this notion in an essay of no less than 3 paragraphs.
In doing this, you should first define (in your own words)
what adversity is, then discuss the two works individually,
and finally compare/contrast them with the concept of
adversity as the central focus of your entire essay.