ENGLISH REVISION SHEET

How does the setting reflect the situation in the excerpt?

Now the once loved pattern of the couch upholstery has to fight
to show itself from under acres of crocheted doilies and couch
covers which have themselves finally come to be more important
than the upholstery. And here a table or a chair has been moved
to disguise the worn places in the carpet; but the carpet has
fought back by showing its weariness, with depressing uniformity,
elsewhere on its surface.
A) it reflects a sense of weariness -correct
B) it reflects a sense of gloating
C) it reflects a sense of pride
D) it reflects a sense of uniformity

Which sentence best summarizes the excerpt?

I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is
immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an
inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of
compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's,
duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man
endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and
honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice
which have been the glory of his past.
A) Writers have the power and the responsibility to bring out
what is most important in the human spirit.
B) Writers have the power to make man immortal --correct
C) Writers’ voices are powerful
D) Writers are compassionate

What specific words convey the writer’s feeling or attitude about

the subject?
He had changed since his New Haven years. Now he was a sturdy
straw-haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a
supercilious manner. Two shining arrogant eyes had established
dominance over his face and gave him the appearance of always
leaning aggressively forward. Not even the effeminate swank of
his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body —
he seemed to fill those glistening boots until he strained the top
lacing, and you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his
shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of
enormous leverage — a cruel body.
A) "Power,” “cruel,” “effeminate”
B) "Arrogant," "dominance," "aggressively," --correct
C) “Enormous,” ” cruel,” ”dominance”
D) “Hard mouth,” “straw-haired,” “enormous”

The poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" is about:

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
A) the falling of leaves.
B) the passage of time.
C) the impermanence of beauty. –correct
D) The power of leaves

What purpose is Steinbeck trying to achieve in this passage?

"I got to figure," the tenant said. "We all got to figure. There's
some way to stop this. It's not like lightning or earthquakes.
We've got a bad thing made by men, and by God that's something
we can change." . . . Across the dooryard the tractor cut, and the
hard foot-beaten ground was seeded field, and the tractor cut
through again; the uncut space was ten feet wide. And back he
came. The iron guard bit into the house-corner, crumbled the
wall, and wrenched the little house from its foundation so that it
fell sideways, crushed like a bug. . . . The tenant man stared after
[the tractor], his rifle in his hand. His wife was beside him, and the
quiet children behind. And all of them stared after the tractor.
A) to illustrate that the problem is man made
B) to illustrate that it is a natural disaster
C) to illustrate that the farmers had different enemies --correct
D) to illustrate that natural disasters can be stopped

The following text is from the poem “A Jelly-Fish” by Marianne

Moore.
Visible, invisible,
a fluctuating charm
an amber-tinctured amethyst
inhabits it, your arm
approaches and it opens
and it closes; you had meant
to catch it and it quivers;
you abandon your intent.
Based on what happens in the poem and the shift in tone, what
might the jellyfish symbolize?
A) Something that you grow to love
B) Something that improves as it ages
C) Something that is attractive, but dangerous --correct
D) Something that leaves quickly
) How does the enjambment in this excerpt affect how you read
the poem?
April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
A) The enjambment allows me to connect the end and
beginning of each line more easily. --correct
B) The enjambment allows me to reconnect the end and
beginning of each line more easily.
C) The enjambment allows me to understand the poem better
D) The enjambment allows me to easily see the
flaws in the poem

What does Walter mean when he says "it is life" in the dialogue?
MAMA Son—how come you talk so much 'bout money?
WALTER (With immense passion) Because it is life, Mama!
MAMA (Quietly) Oh— (Very quietly) So now it's life. Once upon a
time freedom used to be life—now it's money. I guess the world
really do change . . .
WALTER No—it was always money, Mama. We just didn't know
about it.
A) A better way of life --correct
B) A chance to see the world
C) A better way to enjoy freedom
D) A chance to change the world

Which of these is a characteristic of Modernist writing?

A) Unrealistic mental processes
B) Linear story lines
C) Rejection of traditional beliefs --correct
D) Reliable narrators

Which scenario is the best example of a paradox?

A) A couple has a huge house with dozens of rooms and fills
them up with guests.
B) A single man has lots of friends and never finds himself sad
or lonely.
C) A businessman believes in working hard and works at the
same job for 30 years.
D) A rich girl has everything she could ever want and
is very unhappy. –correct
Read the excerpt below:
The valley of ashes is bounded on one side by a small foul river,
and, when the drawbridge is up to let the barges through, the
passengers on waiting trains can stare at the dismal scene for as
long as half an hour.
What is the tone of this excerpt?
A) Fantastical
B) Hopeful
C) Informal
D) Depressing --correct

Which is an example of irony?

A) A man challenges another man to a duel, but only one of the
men shows up to the duel.
B) A firefighter rushes into a blazing house to rescue a cat and
barely survives the ordeal.
C) A woman predicts that the baby she's carrying will be a boy,
but the baby turns out to be a girl.
D) A boy who is angry at his parent, slips into an alley to avoid
his mother and runs right into his father. –correct
Which of the following is most clearly an example of a theme?
A) People often have an unhealthy infatuation with fame.
--correct
B) Responsible journalistic writing is objective.
C) "His eyes were burning" is an example of a metaphor.
D) The similarities between autobiography and
creative nonfiction.

Which of these is the best reason why an author would use an

unreliable narrator?
A) To tone down important events in the story
B) To create a puzzle for the reader
C) To make other characters more likable --correct
D) To give other characters something to react to

Which of these stories fits the model of the American Dream?

A) Middle-class couple is unable to send their son to a good
school
B) Theater actress receives a big role after years of waiting
tables --correct
C) Woman works at a factory for 20 years without a pay raise
D) Wealthy attorney loses everything after making
a tragic mistake

Which of this best characterizes the Jazz Age?

A) A time when the economy was weak
B) A time of indulgence and extravagance --correct
C) A time of war and suffering
D) A time when the government acted nobly

Read the following story:

An old-timer warns a prospector that he should never travel alone
in the Alaskan wilderness when the temperature is 50 below zero.
The prospector laughs at the old-timer and travels into the
wilderness anyway. He soon gets in serious trouble when he
realizes that his hands are shaking too much for him to start a fire.
Which is most clearly a general theme in the story?
A)Peace
B) Arrogance --correct
C) Fire
D) Alaska
Which is the correct MLA format for a parenthetical citation for
this book?
Pugnacious Hummers See Red: How to Attract Hummingbirds, by
Merlin Oglesby, Backyard Books, Minneapolis, 2011, page 37.
A) (Pugnacious Hummers See Red: How to Attract
Hummingbirds, p. 37)
B) (Oglesby, p. 37)
C) (Oglesby 37) --correct
D) (Merlin Oglesby, 37)

) Read this passage from "Notes of a Native Son," in which the

narrator sees his father dying:

The moment I saw [my father] I knew why I had put off this visit
so long. I had told my mother that I did not want to see him
because I hated him. But this was not true. It was only that I had
hated him and I wanted to hold on to this hatred.
In what way does this scene show one of the central ideas of
James Baldwin's essay?
A)The scene shows how hatred is a choice, not a fact of life.
--correct
B)The scene shows how love is a gift that never lasts long.
C)The scene shows how freedom is a responsibility.
D)The scene shows how weakness comes even to the powerful

) Read this paragraph:

The only ability that we know for certain that standardized tests
can measure is the ability to take tests. A student with a short
attention span, a student who suffers from lack of sleep, a student
who fails to decipher a poorly written question, is doomed to bear
the label of "unsatisfactory aptitude" when aptitude was never in
fact a variable.
What is most clearly the central idea of the paragraph?
A) Aptitude is impossible to assess.
B) Only devoted students succeed.
C) Standardized tests are ineffective. --correct
D) Exams are often poorly written.
Read this sentence:
I believe in freedom, I believe in justice, and I believe in America.
Which rhetorical device is the sentence most clearly using?
A) Imagery
B) Parallelism --correct
C) Figurative language        
D) Timbre
Which sentence most clearly uses imagery?
A)Truth is a treasure buried in lies.
B)Dark, ominous clouds slid across the horizon. --correct
C)Tom talked to Tina tempestuously.
D)"Stop that!" Alonzo shouted.

Read this sentence:

The wind blew, the leaves shook, and the birds flew away.
Which best describes the structure of this sentence?
A) This sentence places the object before the verb.
B) This sentence uses parallel subjects and verbs. --correct
C) This sentence places each verb before its subject.
D) This sentence uses a parallel structure but flips the
position of the words.

Read the following passage from The Grapes of Wrath:

The little farmers watched debt creep up on them like the tide.
They sprayed the trees and sold no crop, they pruned and grafted
and could not pick the crop.
Which statement best describes the syntax of this passage?
A) The author uses repetition and parallelism. --correct
B) The author feels frustrated for the farmers.
C) The author shows how the farmers' work was done in vain.
D) The author describes the farmers with action verbs.

Read this excerpt of Walter's words to Mama from A Raisin in the

Sun:
It was your money and you did what you wanted with it. . .. So
you butchered up a dream of mine— you—who always talking
'bout your children's dreams . . .
What is most likely Walter's intent in this passage?
A) To show that he is the head of the family
B) To get Mama to buy the house
C) To make Mama feel guilty --correct
D) To make himself appear humble
Which option is the best example of literary nonfiction?
A)A reading of the Bill of Rights before an audience of activists
B)An essay that relates an activist's experiences fighting for civil
rights --correct
C)An editorial in a newspaper that calls for an end to segregation
D)A textbook that omits the contributions of African Americans
Q1) ow are the central idea and author's purpose connected?

The central idea should reflect the author's purpose

Q2) What are the steps to analyzing a poem?

1.review the title
2. identify the speaker
3. consider the mood and tone
4. try paraphrasing
5. identify the theme

Q3) Do you think that you live in a culture that is

disillusioned? Explain

No, because it is dynamic and adaptive to changes in the world.

My culture is accommodating so people of different demographics

can afford to express themselves and live freely in it. To add to
that, the law protects everyone so people can afford to associate
with others and explore their potential without limits.
Q4) is it possible to have too much of a good thing? Write a
paragraph explaining your opinion and provide an example.

Yes, Saying “too much of a good thing” implies the thing itself is
good. But things themselves aren't inherently good or bad. Things
can be used for good or bad purposes. It's not how much of
something you have, but what you do with it that is good or bad.
Take water as an example. A bucket of it can clean your face or
drown you, depending on how long your head is submerged in it.
Same for an ocean of it.

Q5) Is it possible to both love and hate something at the same

time? Write a paragraph explaining your opinion and
provide an example.

yes I really have felt opposing feelings on more than one occasion.
These completely opposite emotions are found in every human
being. Surely you’ve felt this type of mixed emotions towards
someone before. ex:for example, when we have to leave our
home for a new job opportunity. Or when a loved one passes
away, but it was for the best because they were suffering. It’s
times like those when love and hate start to
become one emotion.

Q6) What's a reason writing can be an effective method of fighting

injustice? Write a paragraph explaining your opinion and
provide an example.
If you are serious about taking a stand against injustice, you need
to make your views known outside your social circle. A great way
to start is by contacting those responsible for the injustice. ex: you
can write a letter to your elected representatives urging them to
do something about an injustice. Or, you can write to a company
that you think is doing something unjust as part of its business
practices, sharing your concerns and asking them
to make a change.