English 4 Academic
Final Examination Review
Mr. P.Phelan
Your final exam will be divided into the following sections:
1. The Things They Carried (20):
Similar to the format of the midterm, you will be required to match short
passages from the stories to themes and ideas that were explored in the
text. To study, be familiar with the following (and how they relate to TTTC):
Revenge, Fear of shame as a motivation for action, Black humor, Loss of
innocence, The Power of Storytelling, Juxtaposition of Tenderness and
Violence, "Story-truth" vs. "Happening-Truth", the narrator's guilt, Theme
of burdens or weight, and the nature of truth.
Know these characters and what they carried:
Norman Bowker
Lee Strunk
Jimmy Cross
Henry Dobbins
Mark Fossie
Dave Jensen
Rat Kiley
Kiowa
Ted Lavender
Mitchell Sanders
2. Slaughterhouse-Five (20):
Multiple choice; Be familiar with these ideas/events:
anti-glacier book, Vonnegut's drunken late night activities, "The Children's
Crusade", birds singing, Billy's plane crash, Roland Weary and his issues,
Billy's job in WW2, "Trapped in amber", Tralfamadorian interpretation of
bible, what Billy says to his adolescent patient, Edgar Derby's crime, (the
character) Vonnegut's appearance(s) in the story, Weary's revenge.
Characters; Know these characters: Kilgore Trout, Paul Lazarro, Valencia
Pilgrim, Edgar Derby, Howard W. Campbell, Jr.
3. Ishmael (33)
Know the meanings of the following:
Ishmael, Mother Culture, story, to enact,
Myth, premise, ecological diversity
Takers, Leavers, culture, Creation
Multiple choice: Be familiar with the following ideas/events:
Jellyfish analogy, Takers' view of the world, Premise of Taker story, The problem
with Taker culture (according to Quinn), Aeronaut analogy, Beginning of Taker
Culture (signal event and year), Historic timeline (Takers vs. Quinn's), Takers'
view of the community of life, Ways Takers live in violation of law of limited
competition (and what is the law of limited competition?), ABCs of Ecology,
danger of ecological homogeneity, Living like "a lion and a wombat", Ishmael's
interpretation of Cain and Abel story, Meaning of "Adam" and "Eve"
4.
Writing Skills (10):
Common Errors
Essay Techniques
Know the following:
On the exam, you will be asked to match sentences with the best revision/editing
comment. These will concern:
1. Parallelism: Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words,
phrases, or clauses.
2. Sentence variety: good writing achieves rhythmic complexity through
variation in the length and opening of sentences.
3. Effective Diction: good writers choose clear, correct, and effective
phrasing. They avoid jargon and pretentious (overblown, “thesaurusized”)
language.
4. Lacks detail (tells instead of shows): good writing is specific and
engaging.
5. Weak Transition: Effective transitions should draw the reader to make
connections between what has been written previously and the present point
the writer is making.
You will also need to be able to identify the definitions of the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Parenthetical references: a way to credit secondary sources.
Topic sentence: connects the body paragraph to rest of essay.
Hanging Indent: Correct way to format Works Cited page in MLA
Funnel down (general to specific): Common way to structure introductory
paragraph
5. Rhetorical Analysis (12):
You will read an essay and respond to Multiple Choice questions that require
you to analyze it.
6.
Literary Analysis (30):
Essay (Conflicts and Themes of 3 novels)