English 9/ English 9A Final Exam Practice Test & Review Sheet(s)
Section 1: Review of The Odyssey
In order to best prepare for the exam, you should:
Read these passages from the Odyssey and answer the questions carefully.
Then shrewd Odysseus stripped off his rags, grabbed up
the bow and quiver full of arrows, and sprang
over to the large doorway. He dumped swift arrows
right there at his feet and then addressed the suitors:
"This competition to decide the issue
is now over. But there's another target—
one no man has ever struck—I'll find out
if I can hit it. May Apollo grant
I get the glory."
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1. Odysseus strips off his rags in line 1 in front of the suitors after firing a shot through 12 axe
helvings in order to show:
A. That he is muscular and impressive even in his old age.
B. That he has many scars from many battles in his journeys.
C. That he is the true King returned.
D. That he is the Herald of the Gods returned.
2. Odysseus cries out to Apollo in line 9 for aid in firing his bow because:
A. He needs Apollo to protect him from the Trojans.
B. He is humble and he remembers he needs the gods' help.
C. He is so proud that he thinks the gods should do his work.
D. He wants Poseidon to know his value as an archer.
As Odysseus said these words, pale fear seized everyone.
Each man looked around to see how he might flee
complete destruction. Only Eurymachus spoke—
he answered him and said:
"If, in fact, it's true
that you're Odysseus of Ithaca,
back home again, you're right in what you say
about the actions of Achaeans here,
their frequent reckless conduct in your home,
their many foolish actions in the fields.
But the man responsible for all this
now lies dead—I mean Antinous, the one
who started all this business, not because
he was all that eager to get married—
that's not what he desired. No. For he had
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another plan in mind, which Cronos' son
did not bring to fulfillment. He wanted
to become the king of fertile Ithaca,
by ambushing your son and killing him.
Now he himself has died, as he deserved.
So at this point you spare your own people.
Later on we'll collect throughout the land
repayment for all we've had to eat and drink
inside your halls, and every man will bring
compensation on his own, in an amount
worth twenty oxen, paying you back in gold
and bronze until your heart is mollified.
Until that time, no one is blaming you
for being so angry."
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3. Eurymachus blames Antinous for all the evil deeds done to Odysseus' house in the past. What
else does Eurymachus say that Antinous had planned?
A. He wanted to destroy the household and burn it.
B. He wanted to murder Odysseus' son, Telemachus.
C. He wanted the suitors to drink up all the wine and eat all the meat and reduce Odysseus'
people to poverty.
D. He wanted to declare war on the son of Cronos and steal his throne.
4. Eurymachus uses _____________ & ______________ in this passage to convince Odysseus
of his innocence.
A. Persuasion and Threats.
B. Threats and Bribery.
C. Bribery and Persuasion.
D. Condolences and Threats.
Shrewd Odysseus glared at him
and then replied:
"Eurymachus, if you gave me
all the goods you got from your own fathers,
everything which you now own, and added
other assets you could obtain elsewhere,
not even then would I hold back my hands
from slaughter, not until the suitors pay
for all their arrogance. Now you've a choice—
to fight here face to face or, if any man
wishes to evade his death and lethal fate,
to run away. But I don't think there's one
who will escape complete destruction."
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5. What element of epic plot is evident from the battle scene that follows this declaration by
Odysseus?
A. Deeds of superhuman strength and valor by the hero.
B. The tragic fall of the hero.
C. Vastly descriptive and lyrical language by the poet.
D. The gods interfering in the lives of men.
6. Odysseus is described as "Shrewd" again in this passage after the suitors tried to buy him out
dishonestly. "Shrewd" is best defined in this context as:
A. Politically-inclined and skilled at bartering deals.
B. Unable to suppress urges to be evil and bloodthirsty.
C. Versatile and able to handle situations with difficult odds.
D. Showing or possessing intelligence, insight, and sound judgment of other people.
Section 2: Review of The Odyssey
Athena spoke. But she did not give him the strength
to win that fight decisively. She was still testing
the power and resolution of Odysseus
and his splendid son. So she flew up to the roof
inside the smoky hall, and sat there, taking on
the appearance of a swallow.
Agelaus spoke, and in their eagerness
to follow what he'd said, they all hurled their spears.
But Athena made sure their spear throws missed the mark.
One man hit a door post in the well-built hall.
Another struck the closely fitted door. One ash spear,
weighted down with bronze, fell against the wall.
The suitors then pulled back
into the inner section of the hall. The others
then rushed up to pull their spears out of the dead.
The suitors kept throwing spears with frantic haste,
but, though there were many, Athena made them miss.
Then Athena held up her man-destroying aegis
from high up in the roof. The suitors' minds panicked,
and they fled through the hall, like a herd of cattle
when a stinging gadfly goads them to stampede,
in spring season, when the long days come. Just as
the falcons with hooked talons and curved beaks
fly down from mountains, chasing birds and driving them
well below the clouds, as they swoop along the plain,
and then pounce and kill them, for there's no defence,
no flying away, while men get pleasure from the chase,
that's how Odysseus and his men pursued the suitors
and struck them down, one by one, throughout the hall.
As they smashed their heads in, dreadful groans arose,
and the whole floor was awash in blood.
Vocabulary: Swallow: Small bird
Aegis: The symbolic shield of Zeus or Athena
Writing Prompt: Athena intervenes several times throughout the battle with the suitors. Write
one paragraph to explain two ways she helps Odysseus, and one paragraph to explain what she
didn't do, or refused to do to help him in order to test him.
Section 3: Review of Common Formative Assessment 1
From “Powder” by Tobias Wolff
Just before Christmas my father took me skiing at Mount Baker. He’d had to fight for the
privilege of my company, because my mother was still angry with him for sneaking me into a
nightclub during his last visit, to see Thelonious Monk.
He wouldn’t give up. He promised, hand on heart, to take good care of me and have me
home for dinner on Christmas Eve, and she relented. But as we were checking out of the lodge
that morning it began to snow, and in this snow we observed some rare quality that made it
necessary for us to get in one last run. We got in several last runs. He was indifferent to my
fretting. Snow whirled around us in bitter, blinding squalls, hissing like sand, and still we skied.
As the lift bore us to the peak yet again, my father looked at his watch and said, “Criminy.
This’ll have to be a fast one.”
By now I couldn’t see the trail. There was no point in trying. I stuck to him like white on
rice and did what he did and somehow made it to the bottom without sailing off a cliff. We
returned our skis and my father put chains on the Austin-Healey while I swayed from foot to
foot, clapping my mittens and wishing I was home. I could see everything. The green
tablecloth, the plates with the holly pattern, the red candles waiting to be lit.
We passed a diner on our way out. “You want some soup?” my father asked. I shook my
head. “Buck up,” he said. “I’ll get you there. Right, doctor?”
A state trooper waved us down outside the resort. A pair of sawhorses were blocking the
road. The trooper came up to our car and bent down to my father’s window. His face was
bleached by the cold. Snowflakes clung to his eyebrows and to the fur trim of his jacket and cap.
“Don’t tell me,” my father said.
The trooper told him. The road was closed. It might get cleared, it might not. Storm took
everyone by surprise. So much, so fast. Hard to get people moving. Christmas Eve. What can
you do.
My father said, “Look. We’re talking about five, six inches. I’ve taken this car through more
than that.”
The trooper straightened up. His face was out of sight but I could hear him. “The road is
closed.”
My father saw with both hands on the wheel, rubbing the wood with his thumbs. He looked
at the barricade for a long time. He seemed to be trying to master the idea of it. Then he thanked
the trooper, and with a weird, old-maidy show of caution turned the car around. “Your mother
will never forgive me for this,” he said.
“We should have left before,” I said. “Doctor.”
He didn’t speak to me again until we were in a booth at the diner, waiting for our burgers.
“She won’t forgive me,” he said. “Do you understand? Never.”
“I guess,” I said, but no guesswork was required; she wouldn’t forgive him.
“I can’t let that happen.” He bent toward me. “I’ll tell you what I want. I want us all to be
together again. Is that what you want?”
“Yes, sir.”
He bumped my chin with his knuckles. “That’s all I needed to hear.”
When we finished eating he went to the pay phone in the back of the diner, then joined me in
the booth again. I figured he’d called my mother, but he didn’t give a report. He sipped at his
coffee and stared out the window at the empty road. “Come on, come on,” he said though not to
me. A little while later he said it again. When the trooper’s car went past, lights flashing, he got
up and dropped some money on the check. “Okay. Vamanos.”
The wind had died. The snow was falling straight down, less of it now and lighter. We drove
away from the resort, right up to the barricade. “Move it,” my father told me. When I looked at
him he said, “What are you waiting for?” I got out and dragged one of the sawhorses aside, then
put it back after he drove through. He pushed the door open for me. “Now you’re an
accomplice,” he said. “We go down together.” He put the car into gear and gave me a look.
“Joke, son.”
1.) You can tell the story is told from the first person point of view because the narrator:
A.) is a character in the story
B.) knows all the character’s thoughts
C.) doesn’t take part in the story’s action
D.) is a voice outside the story
2.) How does this affect the story?
3.) What can you infer about the son’s motivation for refusing to say “Right, doctor?” in line
21?
A.) He is angry at his father
B.) He is flattered that his father jokes with him
C.) He is happy to be on a trip with his father
D.) He misses his mother
4.) Reread lines 27-38 and monitor your understanding. Why does the father turn around with a
“show of caution”?
A.) He wants the trooper to see how carefully he drives
B.) He wants to see what the trooper is doing at all times
C.) He doesn’t want to damage his car
D.) He wants to get around the barricades
5.) The father’s motivation for driving on the closed road is to
A.) Prove he’s an excellent driver
B.) Practice driving in the snow
C.) Keep his promise to get his son home
D.) Challenge the trooper’s authority
6.) Which pair of adjectives best describes the father’s character traits?
A.) Concerned and thoughtful
B.) Awkward and unsure
C.) Humorous and rebellious
D.) Serious and cautious
“Description of Maud Martha” by Gwendolyn Brooks
What she liked was candy buttons, and books, and painted music (deep blue, or delicate
silver) and the west sky, so altering, viewed from the steps of the back porch; and dandelions.
She would have liked a lotus, or China asters or the Japanese Iris, or meadow lilies – yes, she
would have liked meadow lilies, because the very word meadow made her breathe more deeply,
and either fling her arms or want to fling her arms, depending on who was by, rapturously up to
whatever was watching in the sky. But dandelions were what she chiefly saw. Yellow jewels
for everyday, studding the patched green dress of her back yard. She liked their demure
prettiness second to their everydayness; for in that latter quality she thought she saw a picture of
herself, and it was comforting to find that what was common could also be a flower.
And could be cherished! To be cherished was the dearest wish of the heart of Maud Martha
Brown, and sometimes when she was not looking at dandelions (for one would not be looking at
them all the time, often there were chairs and tables to dust or tomatoes to slice of beds to make
or grocery store to be gone to, and in the colder months there were no dandelions at all), it was
hard to believe that a thing of only ordinary allurements – if the allurements of any flower could
be said to be ordinary – was as easy to love as a thing of heart-catching beauty.
Such as her sister Helen! Who was only two years past her own age of seven, and was almost
her own height and weight and thickness. But oh, the long lashes, the grace, the little ways with
her hands and feet.
7.) How do you know the selection is told from the third-person point of view?
A.) Maud Martha is the narrator
B.) Maud Martha is the only character
C.) Maud Martha is referred to as “I.”
D.) Maud Martha is referred to as “She.”
8.) How does this affect the story?
9.) According to what the narrator reveals about Maud Martha, which adjectives best describe
her character traits?
A.) Lazy and conceited
B.) Sensitive and sincere
C.) Harsh and uncaring
D.) Graceful and exotic
10.) What can you infer about Maud Martha from lines 12-17?
A.) She loves only beautiful things
B.) She works hard for a child
C.) She wastes time on flowers
D.) She feels like a special person
11.) What conclusion can you draw about Maud Martha’s feelings for Helen?
A.) She sees Helen as a Dandelion
B.) She feels sorry for Helen
C.) She admires Helen’s beauty
D.) She wishes Helen were prettier
12.) What is the father’s motivation for calling his son an accomplice in line 57? What can you
tell about the father from his words?
“Blue Moons”
If you looked up to the skies the nights of Aug. 20- 21 you saw a blue moon. Mostly known as
the second (or third) full moon in a calendar month, it turns out there are more than a few kinds
of blue moons out there. The full moon of Aug. 20-21, 2013, was considered a seasonal blue
moon — the first in nearly three years. Normally, a season has three months, and hence three full
moons, but the eccentricities of our calendar mean that once every three years, a season has an
extra full moon. The last seasonal blue moon occurred on Nov. 21, 2010, and won’t happen
again until May 21, 2016.
But there’s another definition of blue moon: sometimes the calendar falls so that two full moons
occur within a single month; the second full moon in a month is the blue moon. If we go by that
rule, the next blue moon will occur in 2015, when full moons will occur on July 2 and 23.
The term blue moon may have its origins in the Old English "belewe," which means "to betray,"
writes the Farmers' Almanac. Farmers took the cycles of the moon very seriously when it came
to planting and harvesting their crops. Religious holidays were also built around them, and so an
extra full moon would seem like the sky was up to some mischief.
But was the moon on Aug. 20 actually blue? Not unless you were near a volcanic eruption, or a
certain kind of wildfire — when the moon looks blue, it's because something has thrown
particles of fine-grained smoke and dust into the atmosphere so that only blue light is filtered
through it.
People reported blue moons in 1980 after the eruptions of Mount St. Helens in 1980, the El
Chichón volcano in Mexico in 1983 and Mount Pinatubo in 1991. Historical records suggest that
the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 caused the moon to appear blue for nearly two years.
According to Space.com, the history of the blue moon is full of misunderstanding.
"In 1946, James Hugh Pruett (1886-1955), an amateur astronomer, was writing in Sky &
Telescope magazine. Pruett 'made an incorrect assumption about how the term had been used in
the Maine Farmers' Almanac — which consistently used 'blue moon' to mean the third full moon
in a season that contained four of them (rather than the usual three),' Sky & Telescope editors
later explained. The error had been repeated in a syndicated radio program in 1980," according to
Space.com.
The Old Farmer's Almanac calls the August blue moon, "a full sturgeon moon." According to the
almanac, "Some Native American tribes knew that the sturgeon of the Great Lakes and Lake
Champlain were most readily caught during this full moon. Others called it the Green Corn
Moon or the Grain Moon."
13.) In a few short sentences make an Inference from the article “Blue Moons” as to why cycles
of the moon were critical to early farmers and providers. Based on the article cite at least one
way in which a blue moon could receive that name. Use information from the article to support
your answer.
Section 4: Review of Common Formative Assessment 2
From “Fish Cheecks” by Amy Tan
I fell in love with the minister's son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese, but as
white as Mary in the manger. For Christmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a
slim new American nose.
When I found out that my parents had invited the minister's family over for Christmas Eve
dinner, I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he
think of our noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible
disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese
food?
On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She
was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with
appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging eyes that pleaded not to be
thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges.
A bowl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife
markings so they resembled bicycle tires.
And then they arrived – the minister's family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and
rumpled Christmas packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of
existence.
Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and
reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates
of food. Robert and his family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives
murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced.
Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat.
"Amy, your favorite," he said, offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.
At the end of the meal my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her
fine cooking. "It's a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied," explained my father to our
astonished guests. Robert was looking down at his plate with a reddened face. The minister
managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.
After everyone had gone, my mother said to me, "You want to be the same as American girls
on the outside." She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. "But inside you
must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have
shame."
And even though I didn't agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had
suffered during the evening's dinner. It wasn't until many years later – long after I had gotten
over my crush on Robert – that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose
behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.
-ANDFrom “Piedra” by Gary Soto
Piedra. River of rock, place where our family went for a Saturday picnic. It was a fifteenmile drive past plum and almond orchards, dairies, the town with its green sign, MinklerPopulation 35, Mexicanos pruning orange trees on ladders, and our mother’s talk that if our
grades didn’t improve we would be like those people. Past cows with grassy jaws, past fallen
fences, groceries, tractors itching with rust, the Griffin ranch with its mowed pasture and white
fence that proclaimed he was a gentleman farmer. We gawked at his ranch, and counted his
cows, which seemed cleaner, better looking tha the fly-speckles ones we had passed earlier.
I dreamed about Griffin’s daughters. I imagined that their hair was tied in ponytails and
bounced crazily when they rode horses in knee-high grass near the river. They were the stuff of
romance novels, sad and lonely girls who were in love with a stable boy, who was also sad and
lonely but too poor for the father’s liking, because he himself had once been poor but now was
rich and liked to whip horses, cuss, and chase gasping foxes at daybreak.
My dreaming stopped when the road narrowed, gravel ticked under a fender, and we began
our climb through the foot-hills.
1. Why does the mother tell her children to get better grades? (R.L.3)
A. She wants them to do as well as the tree pruners they saw.
B. She wants them to have better -paying jobs than pruning trees.
C. She wants them to be smarter than their friends.
D. She wants them to learn how to run a ranch.
2. What do you learn about the main character in this excerpt? (R.L.3)
A. He would like to get good grades.
B. He admires the Griffen ranch.
C. He and his family live in a city.
D. He wants to be a farmer.
3. What prompts the narrator to begin daydreaming? (R.L.3)
A.
B.
C.
D.
seeing the green Minkler sign
passing the people who prune trees for a living
seeing a ranch that is better than all the others
feeling the car start its climb through the foothills
4. Which issue seems more important to the mother in “Fish Cheeks” than to the mother in
“Piedra”? (R.L.3)
A. money
B. tradition
C. school
D. friendship
5. In what way are the narrators of both selections alike? (R.L.3)
A. Both narrators are parents who care about their children.
B. They are both students who want to get better grades.
C. Both narrators are children who disobey their parents.
D. They both long for something they do not have.
6. Choose the word that is a synonym of the underlined word in the following sentence from
“Fish Cheeks”.
And then they arrived—the minister’s family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells
and rumpled Christmas packages.
A. crowd
B. shabbiness
C. noise
D. offering
7. Choose the word that is a synonym of the underlined phrase in the following sentence
from “Fish Cheeks”.
The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp.
A. hide
B. echo
C. produce
D. excuse
Constructed Response—Please write three to four sentences and provide evidence/examples
from the story to support your answer. (R.L.1 & L.1)
1. How would the narrator of “Fish Cheeks” probably react if her parents invited the
minister’s family to dinner for the next holiday? Give evidence from the selection back
up your answer.
2. In “Fish Cheeks”, how can you tell that the guests were embarrassed at the end of the
meal? Give three pieces of evidence from the story.
iPhone survives plunge from plane
Some phones are made of sterner stuff.
Angela Dalton and her 10-year-old son were riding as passengers in a three-seat plane on Friday
for an aerial tour of Dothan, courtesy of a family friend who happens to be a pilot.
When the plane neared Dalton's Dothan, Alabama neighborhood, she lifted her iPhone to snap a
photo. "I was trying to zoom it on my phone, and the wind just caught it and ripped it out of my
hand," Dalton said. A panicked Dalton watched as the phone spiraled away, soaring down an
estimated 1,400 feet toward the city. "All that kept going through my head was, 'I hope I don't
get home and it's all over the news that I knocked somebody out or somebody got killed or it hit
a windshield and caused a car accident,'" she said.
Resigned to the fact that her beloved phone had been decimated, she nevertheless called her
number when she got home. To her surprise, the phone rang but no one answered. Still, she and
her husband suspended the account and, after being told the drop wasn't covered by the phone's
warranty, thought the situation to be over. But it wasn't.
Monday afternoon, Eric Hall had just left his house to check the mail when he noticed an orange
cellphone sitting in his yard about six feet from the curb. Hall charged the phone and called the
last number the phone had dialed - Bill Smith, the pilot of the airplane from which the phone had
fallen. "Hall said, 'Hey, I found this phone.' Smith paused and then said, "You're kidding me."
Smith then asked what it looked like, and Hall said, "It looks great, like somebody dropped it out
of their pocket while walking." Smith said that, no, it fell 1,400 feet out of an airplane.
Not only had the phone survived the fall, it was in pristine condition, even after a weekend
storm.
1. A paper written about the sturdiness of the iPhone might have a thesis such as
“iPhones are one of the sturdiest phones a person can own.”
Find two pieces of evidence from the article to support this thesis. Write your answer in
complete sentences. (R.I.1)