The SOPHOMORE English FINAL
STUDY GUIDE
PART 1 - Vocabulary Section
Directions: Fill in the following sentences with the correct vocabulary word from the word bank.
Each word is only used once and is used in the same form as it is listed.
The vocab words will be broken into TWO word banks of 15 words apiece.
Each bank will be followed by 15 sentences with “blanks” to fill the correct word in
(just like our vocab quizzes all year)
PART 2 – Literary Element/Term Section
Directions: Identify the literary element portrayed in each of the following passages
The terms/elements will be provided in a word bank. I’ll give a sentence or passage that is an
example of a literary term or element. You’ll identify which it is by writing the term in the blank
next to that sentence. Each term/element will only be used once so you can cross them off as
you use them.
PART 3 - Quotation Analysis
Directions: You will be given quotations from 5 different works we read this year:
(The Kite Runner, The Scarlet Letter, Of Mice and Men, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, Lord of the Flies)
You’ll then Choose ONLY THREE to analyze and identify the following:
A) the context of the quotation
B) its relevance to the story overall
C) importance of diction (word choice)
D) author’s tone
PART 4 - Essay
Directions: You’ll read a short passage and identify the rhetorical strategies the author/speaker
uses to appeal to an audience…
HOW TO BEST PREPARE:
 For the VOCABULARY - Learn the Vocabulary Words upside down and backwards!
 For the QUOTATION ANALYSIS - Remember to focus on DICTION for the quotation
analysis (word choice). It’s always good to pull words out of a quotation to interpret them,
explain meaning and why the author chose these specific words (for what purpose… how it
adds meaning…). Refresh your memory on the stories we read this year (the characters…)
 For the LITERARY TERMS – Study them! Be prepared to identify what a sentence or
passage IS by knowing what to look for based on the literary term definition
 For the ESSAY - Understand how to identify rhetorical strategies such as Ethos, Logos and
Pathos (Ethical, Logical and Emotional appeals made to draw the audience in and make a
point). Other rhetorical strategies to note: rhetorical questioning, repetition, word choice…
Have no fear… we will be reviewing these strategies ALL week prior to the exam too!
The VOCABULARY WORDS to study for the Exam…
(you’ll be tested on 30 of these)
1. Affluent: (Adj.) having an abundance of wealth, property, or other material goods; prosperous
2. Apathetic: (Adj.) indifferent due to lack of energy or concern
3. Callous: (Adj.) unfeeling, insensitive to feelings of others
4. Caustic: (Adj.) intense use of sarcasm; stinging, biting
5. Chastise: (V) to discipline or punish by beating or scolding severely
6. Choleric: (Adj.) hot-tempered, easily angered
7. Condescending: (Adj.) a feeling of superiority; speaking down to someone else
8. Contemplative: (Adj.) studying, thinking, reflecting on an issue
9. Contemptuous: (Adj.) showing or feeling that something is worthless or lacks respect
10. Cynical: (Adj.) questions the basic sincerity and goodness of people
11. Digress: (V.) to deviate from or to stray; to depart from the main point in argument
12. Disdainful: (Adj.) scornful
13. Elucidate: (V) to provide clarification; explain; to make clear; to throw light upon
14. Enmity: (N) a feeling or condition of hostility; hatred; ill will; animosity; antagonism
15. Errant: (Adj.) deviating from the regular or proper course; straying; roving adventurously
16. Expunge: (V) to completely erase; to rid of
17. Fortuitous: (Adj.) happening or produced by chance; accidental; lucky; fortunate
18. Frenetic: (Adj.) confused, awkward, clumsy
19. Furtive: (Adj.) taken or done in secret; being stealthy
20. Haughty: (Adj.) proud and vain to the point of arrogance
21. Imminent: (Adj.) likely to occur at any moment; impending; something that’s going to happen
22. Impudent: (Adj.) of, pertaining to, or characterized by rudeness; insulting, saucy
23. Integrity: (N) adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty
24. Lucrative: (Adj.) profitable or money-making
25. Mollified: (Adj.) soothed or calmed
26. Nemesis: (N) something or someone that a person cannot conquer, achieve, etc…
27. Nuances: (N) a subtle or slight difference or distinction in something
28. Pallid: (Adj.) pale; faint or deficient in color; wan; lacking in vitality or interest
29. Permeate: (V) to pass into or through every part of (as smoke can permeate a building)
30. Perpetual: (Adj.) continuing or enduring forever; everlasting; ceaseless…
31. Persistent: (Adj.) lasting or enduring tenaciously; constantly repeated; continued
32. Predicament: (N) a difficult situation or problem
33. Prominence: (Adj.) the state or quality of standing out or being noticed; conspicuous
34. Reverie: (N.) a daydream; getting lost in a fantasy, a visionary or impractical idea.
35. Strident: (Adj.) making or having a harsh sound; having a shrill, irritating quality or character
36. Trepidation: (N) fear or apprehension, especially trembling from fear
37. Unscrupulous: (Adj.) refers to lack of moral standards or conscience to guide one's conduct
38. Vehemently: (Adv.) violently; characterized by anger; strongly emotional; marked by great energy
39. Venerate: (V) to regard with deep respect; to pay honor to something
40. Vindication: (N) an excuse or justification for something
The LITERARY TERMS/ELEMENTS to study for the exam…
Cliché: a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost
originality, and impact by long overuse, as sadder but wiser, or strong as an ox.
Euphemism: the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive,
harsh, or blunt; the expression so substituted: “To pass away” is a euphemism for “to die.”
Hyperbole: obvious and intentional exaggeration; an extravagant statement or figure of speech not
intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”
Idiom: an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent
elements, as kick the bucket or hang one's head, or from the general grammatical rules of a language, as
the table round for the round table, and that is not a constituent of a larger expression of like
characteristics; a language, dialect, or style of speaking peculiar to a people.
Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally
applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our God.”
Pun: the humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or
applications, or the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning; a play on
words.
Onomatopoeia: the formation of a word, as cuckoo, meow, honk, or boom, by imitation of a sound made
by or associated with its referent.
Oxymoron: a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory
effect, as in “cruel kindness” or “to make haste slowly.”
Personification: the attribution of human nature or character to animals, inanimate objects, or abstract
notions, especially as a rhetorical figure.
Simile: a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared, as in “she is like a rose.” Uses
“Like” or “as”.
Symbol: something used for or regarded as representing something else; a material object representing
something, often something immaterial; emblem, token, or sign
Irony: the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her
reply, “How nice!” when I said I had to work all weekend.
Paradox: a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a
possible truth: a self-contradictory and false proposition.
Connotation: the associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or
primary meaning: A possible connotation of “home” is “a place of warmth, comfort, and affection.”
Denotation: the literal meaning; the explicit or direct meaning or set of meanings of a word or expression,
as distinguished from the ideas or meanings associated with it or suggested by it
The RHETORICAL STRATEGIES to study for the ESSAY…
Rhetorical strategies are the efforts made by authors to persuade or inform readers. Rhetorical
Strategies are employed by writers/speakers and describe the different ways to persuade an
audience. Before deciding which rhetorical strategy to use in any specific situation, a writer needs to
consider a few questions to determine the strategy that best suits the text to be written.
Such questions might include:
 Who is the intended audience? What is the writer’s relationship with them? For example
colleague-to-colleague, teacher-to-student, salesman-to-client, etc…
 What does he/she want to prove an argument? Does he/she include counter arguments?
 How does the speaker simplify the issue(s) or attempt to appeal to this audience?
Emotionally? Logically? Ethically? What proof is there in a text that shows this?
TYPES OF APPEALS TO AN AUDIENCE…
Logos or the appeal to reason relies on logic or reason. Logos often depends on the use of inductive
or deductive reasoning.
Example:
Persuading an audience of teens to avoid cigarettes LOGICALLY
“Smoking leads to cancer. Cancer leads to death. 4 out of 5 smokers contract cancer and ultimately die due to
smoking-related illnesses”
Ethos or the ethical appeal is based on the character, credibility, or reliability of the writer. There are
many ways to establish good character and credibility as an author:
 Use only credible, reliable sources to build your argument and cite those sources properly.
 Respect the reader by stating the opposing position accurately.
 Establish common ground with your audience. Most of the time, this can be done by
acknowledging values and beliefs shared by those on both sides of the argument.
 If appropriate for the assignment, disclose why you are interested in this topic or what personal
experiences you have had with the topic.
 Organize your argument in a logical, easy to follow manner. You can use the Toulmin method
of logic or a simple pattern such as chronological order, most general to most detailed
example, earliest to most recent example, etc.
 Proofread the argument. Too many careless grammar mistakes cast doubt on your character
as a writer.
Example:
Persuading an audience of teens to avoid cigarettes ETHICALLY
“Secondary smoke has been proven to harm those around smokers. As a society, we should work to improve
the lives of others, not harm them. By smoking, you are slowly killing those closest to you.”
Pathos or emotional appeal, appeals to an audience's needs, values, and emotional sensibilities.
Emotional appeals can use sources such as interviews and individual stories to paint a more
legitimate and moving picture of reality or illuminate the truth on a topic.
Example:
Persuading an audience of teens to avoid cigarettes EMOTIONALLY
“My uncle died from cigarette smoking, leaving behind 3 daughters and a wife who never got over the pain.
Looking back, we all wish we’d talked to him about it and how his potential death would hurt us and what his
“absence” from our lives would mean to us. Perhaps if we’d done so, he’d still be here today…”
WE’LL BE REVIEWING WHAT TO LOOK FOR AND HOW TO WRITE THIS ESSAY THE ENTIRE WEEK!
CHARACTER LIST
(Reviewing this might help you identify the quotations to be analyzed…)
The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail
Henry David Thoreau
John (Thoreau’s brother)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Bailey (cell mate)
Deacon Ball (Dean of Students)
Sam Staples (Jailer)
The Kite Runner
Amir
Baba
Hassan
Ali
Rahim Khan
Soraya (Amir’s wife)
Sohrab (Hassan’s son)
Assef
Lord of the Flies
Ralph
Jack
Piggy
Simon
Maurice
Roger
Sam-n-Eric
“Littluns” & “Biguns”
The Scarlet Letter
Hester Prynne
Pearl
Roger Chillingworth
Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale
Of Mice and Men
Lenny Small (“special” big guy)
George Milton
Curley
Curley’s wife
Slim (skinner/foreman)
Candy (1-armed old guy)
Crooks (stable guy)