Midterm review
English 12 regular, fall 2012
• Some of these slides are repetitive. Some of
them ask the same question but in slightly
different ways. Don’t be concerned about
that—just be grateful to have this review.
• Not all of these questions are on the test.
However, if you study this review, you will be
well prepared for the midterm.
This king united England by encouraging the use
of Old English as a common language
Alfred the Great
• This ended Anglo-Saxon rule of England in
1066
• Norman Conquest
• The signing of this limited the power of the
English king and gave more power to the
barons
• Magna Carta
This is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning “manprice,” or the price a tribe must pay for
murdering a warrior from another tribe
Wergild
• this is the rigid social system that governed
England in the early medieval era
• Feudalism
This conflict helped England develop a sense of
national identity
Hundred Years War
• In these places, written texts were copied and
preserved during the Anglo-Saxon and
Medieval eras
• Monasteries
• This is the Anglo-Saxon word for “fate”
• Wyrd
• This is the Anglo-Saxon word for a travelling
storyteller
• Scop
This is the word describing a group composed of
a warlord and his followers
Comitatus
This was the vernacular language in Anglo-Saxon
England
Old English
• Chaucer writes about this kind of trip in The
Canterbury Tales
• Pilgrimage
• This is the language of the church and known
by the educated elite in Anglo-Saxon and
medieval England
• Latin
• This is the language spoken by the ruling class
in medieval England
• French
• This is the vernacular language in medieval
England
• Middle English
• The one hundred most commonly used words
in Modern English come from this language
• Old English
This is a long poem telling the deeds of a hero
Epic
• This is a man who does great deeds and
represents the values of his people and
culture
• Epic hero
• A word or phrase used to characterize a
particular person, place, or thing
• Epithet
• A phrase used in Anglo-Saxon poetry to
describe a person, place, or thing
• Kenning
• This is a literary device which seems to be
contradictory but is actually true in the
context of the work of literature.
• Paradox
• This is a literary device directly comparing two
unlike things
• metaphor
• The manuscript for Beowulf was probably
written in one of these places
• monasteries
This author was born into a middle class family
but worked as a page in an upper class
household, thus allowing him to know about
both social classes.
Geoffrey Chaucer
• This is the plot structure used for The
Canterbury Tales and The Decameron.
• Frame narrative/story
• This is the language commonly spoken every
day by a large group of people
• Vernacular
• This Italian work is an important source for
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
• The Decameron
• This type of story became the most popular
work of literature in medieval England.
• Romance
This is the code of behavior for knights in
medieval England
Chivalry
• This word means “entertainment value” in
Middle English
• “solace”
• This word means “lesson or moral” in Middle
English
• “sentence”
Chaucer’s pilgrims
This pilgrim is on the pilgrimage to Canterbury
specifically to give thanks to God.
Knight
Chaucer’s pilgrims
This pilgrim works with pharmacists to maximize
their profits.
Doctor
Chaucer’s pilgrims
This religious pilgrim has the gift of gab and
loves to spend time with the wealthy people
in town, hearing their confessions for a fee.
Friar
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• This pilgrim has beautiful manners and cares
very much about animal welfare.
• Nun
• This is a journey that is meant to show
religious devotion.
• Pilgrimage
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• This pilgrim loves to travel and knows the
“remedies” for the pains of love.
Wife of Bath
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• This man is one of Chaucer’s perfect pilgrims
and spends much time traveling around his
community, visiting people.
• Parson
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• This pilgrim rides at the very end of the group
so that he can watch everybody else.
• Reeve
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• This pilgrim accepts bribes from sinners and
allows them to continue sinning.
• Summoner
Chaucer’s pilgrims
This pilgrim deceives people with false relics.
Pardoner
• Beowulf is an example of this kind of literary
character
• Epic hero
• This is the language spoken by William the
Conqueror and his nobles
• French
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• This pilgrim carries a pillow case said to be a
piece of the Virgin Mary’s veil; sings an
offertory very well
• Pardoner
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• This pilgrim has terrible sores on the face and
loves to eat garlic and onions; only speaks
Latin when drunk
• Summoner
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• This pilgrim can sweet talk a poor widow out
of her last farthing, but prefers hanging out
with the rich people
• Friar
• “My mind is full of scorpions” is an example
of this literary device
• metaphor
• “Fair is foul, foul is fair” is an example of this
literary device
• paradox
• Chaucer wrote in this language
• Middle English
• In this story, young, wealthy Italians travel the
countryside to escape an outbreak of the
plague.
• The Decameron
• “the Almighty’s enemy,” “that shadow of
death,” “shepherd of evil,” and “guardian of
crime” are all examples from Beowulf of this
Anglo-Saxon literary device.
• kenning
• this document, signed in 1215, became the
basis for English constitutional government
• Magna Carta
• his rule began in 871, and he united the Saxon
tribes of southern England and led them to
victory against the Danes
• Alfred the Great
• invasion of England that occurred in 1066
• Norman Conquest
• This social system had the king at the top and
serfs at the bottom, with land-owning nobles
in the middle
• feudalism
• The Canterbury Tales was written in this
language
• Middle English
• language that the Beowulf manuscript is
written in
• Old English
• plot structure that creates a story within a
story
• Frame narrative
True or false?
• Beowulf becomes king of the Danes.
• false
True or false?
• Hrothgar sends for Beowulf to help him defeat
Grendel.
• false
True or false?
• Beowulf’s first important battle is with the
dragon.
• false
True or false?
• Beowulf’s warriors all display great bravery in
the fight with the dragon.
• false
True or False?
• Beowulf is king of the Geats.
• true
True or false?
• Beowulf says Wiglaf should be king after him.
• True
• wrote an important Italian work that
influenced Chaucer
• Giovanni Boccaccio
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• has been to Jerusalem three times; is “skilled
in wandering by the way” and wears nice
clothing
• Wife of Bath
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• “Children were afraid when he appeared.”
• Summoner
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• practices what he preaches
• Parson
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• his skinny appearance is an indicated that he
is tight-fisted with money and secretive in his
dealings with people
• Reeve
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• has relationships with women, then finds
them husbands and pays the women to keep
it secret
• Friar
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• embezzles from his boss and is secretly
wealthy
• Reeve
• his writing helped give legitimacy and
significance to Middle English
• Chaucer
Renaissance poetry and literary
devices
• This is a humorous imitation of a literary work
that aims to point out the work’s
shortcomings.
• parody
Renaissance poetry and literary
devices
• a ____ is defined as a statement or situation
that seems impossible or contradictory but is
actually true, either literally or figuratively, in
the context of the work of literature.
• paradox
Renaissance poetry and literary
devices
• In sonnet 30, when the speaker compares his
love to ice, this literary device is used:
• simile
Renaissance poetry and literary
devices
• Which poem has this main idea: Love is so
powerful that it can alter the laws of nature.
• Sonnet 30, “My love is like to ice”
Renaissance poetry and literary
devices
• Which poem has this main idea: Death is not
something to be feared.
• Sonnet 10, “Death be not proud”
Renaissance poetry and literary
devices
• a ____ is defined as a comparison using like or
as
• simile
Renaissance poetry and literary
devices
• Which sonnet contains two paradoxes that
extend throughout the poem?
• Sonnet 30, “My love is like to ice”
Renaissance poetry and literary
devices
• Which sonnet describes a woman very
realistically?
• Sonnet 130, “My mistress’ eyes”
Renaissance poetry and literary
devices
• Which Italian writer made the sonnet famous?
• Petrarch
Renaissance poetry and literary
devices
• ____ is defined as a figure of speech in which
a speaker talks to an inanimate object, idea, or
absent person.
• apostrophe
Which character from Twelfth Night is
described?
• discovers that disguise is a “wickedness” but
decides not to try to “untie” the “knot”
created by the disguise
• Viola
Which character from Twelfth Night is
described?
• says about himself, “Well, I’ll put it on, and I
will dissemble myself in ‘t, and I would I were
the first that ever dissembled in such a gown.”
(Act 4, scene 2, lines 4-6)
• Fool
Which character from Twelfth Night is
described?
• marries Sebastian
• Olivia
Which character from Twelfth Night is
described?
• is convinced by Toby that he will eventually
win the favor and grace of Olivia
• Andrew
Which character from Twelfth Night is
described?
• is convinced by a letter that he has already
won the favor and grace of Olivia
• Malvolio
Which character from Twelfth Night is
described?
• Dresses as a priest in Act 4
• Fool
Which character from Twelfth Night is
described?
• rescues Viola from a duel
• Antonio
Which character from Twelfth Night is
described?
• marries Maria
• Toby
Which character from Twelfth Night is
described?
• says that “such as I am, all true lovers are,
unstaid and skittish in all motions else save in
the constant image of the creature that is
beloved” (Act 2, scene 4)
• Orsino
Which character from Twelfth Night is
described?
• who is “the lady” described in Act 4 scene 3:
“…or else the lady’s mad. Yet if ‘twere so, she
could not sway her house, command her
followers…”
• Olivia
Which character from Twelfth Night is
described?
• “the devil a puritan that he is, or anything
constantly but a time-pleaser; an affectioned
ass…so crammed, as he thinks, with
excellencies, that it is his grounds of faith that
all that look on him love him” (Act 2, scene 3)
• Malvolio
•
• King who united Anglo-Saxon tribes, led them
against invaders, and promoted use of AngloSaxon language
• Alfred the Great
• Anglo-Saxon word for fate, a controlling force
that could not be overcome
• wyrd
• Anglo-Saxon word for entertainer who
performed songs of heroes
• scop
• this is defined as a literary character who
embodies the values of his culture
• Epic hero
• Price paid to a tribe as reparation for killing
one of its warriors
• wergild
• Anglo-Saxon literary device; descriptive phrase
• kenning
• Group composed of a warlord and his
followers
• comitatus
• ____________ is the rigid social system or
structure that governed England in the early
medieval era.
• feudalism
• ________ is a system of ideals and codes of
behavior that governed knights and
gentlewomen.
• chivalry
• _______ is an important Italian source for The
Canterbury Tales.
• The Decameron
• Geoffrey Chaucer was born into a _______class family.
• middle
• The ______ limited the king’s power and
became the basis for English constitutional
law.
• Magna Carta
• The one hundred most commonly used words
in Modern English come from this language:
• Old English
• ________ brought about the first feelings of
national identity in England.
• Hundred Years War
• In the Middle Ages the upper class in England
spoke ________
• French
• The vernacular language in England in the
Middle Ages was __________
• Middle English
• The entertainment value of Chaucer’s stories
was called (in Middle English) ____
• solace
• The lesson taught by Chaucer’s stories was
called (in Middle English) _____
• sentence
• Chaucer used this literary device to write the
Canterbury Tales:
• Frame narrative/story
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• practices what he preaches; is a good
shepherd and puts other people first
• Parson
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• has married off many young women and paid
them money to keep quiet; can talk a poor
widow out of her last penny
• Friar
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• knows remedies for the pains of love; is skilled
at making cloth; loves to travel and has been
to Jerusalem three times
• Wife of Bath
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• carries a pillow case (and other false relics)
said to be a piece of the Virgin Mary’s veil;
sings an offertory very well
• Pardoner
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• follows “chivalry, truth, honor, generousness,
and courtesy” and has “never said a boorish
thing” in his life
• Knight
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• has beautiful manners and loves her dogs;
works hard to “counterfeit a courtly kind of
grace”
• Nun
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• has terrible sores on the face and loves to eat
garlic and onions; speaks Latin when drunk;
values power over people
• Summoner
Chaucer’s pilgrims
• he rode at the very end of the group of
pilgrims, probably so that he can keep an eye
on everyone
• Reeve