Study Guide for First Semester Exam
Pre-AP English 9
Complete this study guide on your own sheet of paper. Be neat and stay organized- all sections should be labeled. Use all handouts, notes, worksheets,
etc. in order to complete! NOTE: Be sure to be familiar with all major plot points of both To Kill a Mockingbird and Romeo & Juliet—study the
comprehension questions/summaries for both!
1)
2)
Short Stories
a) Define the following terms
i) Plot (also, draw a plot diagram which includes
exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and
resolution)
ii) Conflict
iii) Indirect Characterization
iv) Direct Characterization
v) Protagonist
vi)
vii)
viii)
ix)
Antagonist
Dynamic character
Setting
Point of View
(1) First Person
(2) Third Person Limited
(3) Third Person Omniscient
To Kill a Mockingbird
a) Literary Elements. Define and be able to recognize the following…
i) Euphemism
ii) Diction (know connotation and denotation)
b) Character Identification: Define each character (know who they are, why they are important, etc.)
i) Scout
ix) Mrs. Dubose
ii) Jem
x) Dolphus Raymond
iii) Dill
xi) Bob Ewell
iv) Atticus
xii) Tom Robinson
v) Calpurnia
xiii) Mayella Ewell
vi) Arthur “Boo” Radley
xiv) Aunt Alexandra
vii) Miss Maudie
xv) Heck Tate
viii) Walter Cunningham
c) Character Identification-Quotations: Choose which character is being identified in the following quotations.
i) “A young girl walked to the witness stand. As she raised her hand and swore that the evidence she gave would be the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help her God, she seemed somehow fragile-looking, but when she sat facing us
in the witness chair she became what she was, a thick-bodied girl accustomed to strenuous labor.”
ii) “His maddening superiority was unbearable these days. He didn't want to do anything but read and go off by himself. Still,
everything he read he passed along to me, but with this difference: formerly, because he thought I'd like it; now, for my
edification and instruction.”
iii) “She was all angles and bones; she was nearsighted; she squinted; her hand was wide as a bed slat and twice as hard. She
was always ordering me out of the kitchen, asking me why I couldn't behave as well as Jem when she knew he was older,
and calling me home when I wasn't ready to come. Our battles were epic and one-sided.”
iv) “If she was on the porch when we passed, we would be raked by her wrathful gaze, subjected to ruthless interrogation
regarding our behavior, and given a melancholy prediction on what we would amount to when we grew up, which was
always nothing.”
v) "Thus we came to know [him] as a pocket Merlin, whose head teemed with eccentric plans, strange longings, and quaint
fancies.”
vi) “[He] was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's
why his hands were bloodstained – if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged
scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.”
d) Describe the setting of the novel (time, place, and describe the place)
e) Who said it?: Which character said…
i) “I may not be much, Mr. Finch, but I’m still sheriff of Maycomb County and Bob Ewell fell on his knife.”
ii) “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view--until you climb into his skin and
walk around in it.”
iii) “Don’t matter who they are, anybody sets foot in this house’s yo’ comp’ny and don’t you let me catch you remarkin’ on their
ways like you was so high and mighty.”
iv) “You are too young to understand it ... but sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the
hand of--oh, of your father.”
v) “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when
you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but
sometimes you do.”
vi) “I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the
house all this time. It's because he wants to stay inside.”
vii) “Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us
two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives.”
viii) "I got somethin' to say an' then I ain't gonna say no more. That nigger yonder took advantage of me an' if you fine fancy
gentlemen don't wanta do nothin' about it then you're all yellow stinkin' cowards, stinkin' cowards, the lot of you. Your
fancy airs don't come to nothin'…”
3)
Parts of Speech. Know how to identify the 8 Parts of Speech in sentences
4)
Elements of a Drama and Romeo & Juliet
a) Define the following.
i) Dialogue
v) Soliloquoy
ii) Monologue
vi) Chorus
iii) Stage Directions
vii) Foil
iv) Aside
b) Rhetorical Strategies: Know the meaning of each term and be able to identify an example
i) Rhetorical Question
vi) Asyndeton
ii) Metaphor
vii) Antithesis
iii) Repetition
viii) Inversion
iv) Parallelism
ix) Logical Appeals
v) Polysyndeton
x) Emotional Appeals
c) Sonnet Form: Know the basic form of a sonnet and details about Sonnet 18
i) Comic relief
v) Pun
ii) Dramatic Irony
vi) Iambic Pentameter
iii) Euphemism
vii) Rhyming Couplet
iv) Oxymoron
d) Identify the following characters
i) Romeo
vii) Tybalt
ii) Juliet
viii) Paris
iii) Nurse
ix) Lord Capulet
iv) Friar Laurence
x) Lady Capulet
v) Benvolio
xi) Rosaline
vi) Mercutio
xii) Prince
e)
Write an example from Romeo & Juliet of the following literary techniques.
i) personification
v) pun
ii) simile
vi) dramatic irony
iii) metaphor
vii) situational irony
iv) hyperbole
viii) verbal irony
f)
Who said it? Write who said the following quotations and briefly explain their significance.
i) “These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triump die, like fire and powder
Which, as they kiss, consume”
ii) “From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife…”
iii) “O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you…”
iv) “What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.”
v) “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!” ?
vi) "Help me into some house, Benvolio,
Or I shall faint. A plague o' both your houses!
They have made worms' meat of me"
vii) "What's here? A cup closed in my true love's hand?
Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.
O churl! Drunk all, and left no friendly drop
To help me after? I will kiss they lips"
viii) "If ever you disturb our streets again
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.”