8th Grade Short Stories Block Test

Name _______________________ date ______________

1. List the four basic elements of a short story (plot):

a.
b.
c.
d.

2. List five ways you can begin to develop the main character in a story
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

3. Describe the exposition portion of a story (what 4 elements does it

usually include?)
a.
b.
c.
d.

4. Draw and label the form you would employ if you were to “Map” a short
story. (there are 8 main parts)
5. Define the following:

Plot-

Theme-

Mood-

Suspense-

Irony-

Foreshadowing-

First person voice-

Third person omniscient voice-

Third person limited omniscient voice-

6. How might you discover the theme of a story? (What should you pay
attention to?)
7. Match the short story with its author: (You can use a name
more than once) Place the letter beside the author’s name in
the blank before the title of the story he/she wrote.

___The Ransom of Red Chief

(A) Elliott Merrick
___Miss Hinch
(B) Henry Harrison
___Hearts and Hands
(C) Hildegarde Dolson
___Two Boys on a Mountain
(D) O’ Henry
___Without Words
(E) Richard Connell
___The Necklace
(F) William O’ Douglas
___The Most Dangerous Game
(G) Guy de Maupassant
___How Beautiful with Mud

8. Below are passages from some of the short stories you read.
Write the name of the short story below each passage.

“I bought some smoking tobacco, referred casually to the price of black-

eyed peas, posted my letter surreptitiously, and came away.”

“Presently the bedclothes began to slip away slowly toward the foot of
the bed, as if some one were pulling them!”

“When he saw me leaning out, his mouth dropped open and he let out a
hoarse, awful sound. Then he turned and ran…”

“The wind was compass enough for him and had been since boyhood.”
“As the youth advanced into the arena, he turned, as the custom was, to
bow to the king.”

“The job was finished at last, and he threw himself down behind a fallen
log a hundred feet away. He did not have to wait long. The cat was coming
again to play with the mouse.”

“There were not many such chins in the world, and the urchins in the
street would have recognized this one.”

“ She danced madly, ecstatically, drunk with pleasure, with no thought for
anything, in the triumph of her beauty, in the pride of her success, in a
cloud of happiness…”

9. Of all of the short stories that we read, which one was your
favorite?

Below write a short paragraph explaining why (be convincing).