STUDY GUIDE FOR SPRING 2014 MIDTERM
Name: _____________________________
I. Usage and Grammar Questions
A. Verbals:___________________________________________________________________
1. infinitive _____________________________________________________________
2. participle _____________________________________________________________
3. gerund _______________________________________________________________
More practice: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/writing/english/verb/quiz-verbals-gerunds-infinitives-and-participles
For each of the following sentences, circle the verbal and write out to the right the type.
Example: The Middle Ages may be seen as a historical filling, sandwiched between the Latin
civilization of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance. ________________________
4. Sacking the Romans, the Germanic tribes blended with the native peoples. ____________________
5. The native peoples began to speak the Romance Languages instead of Latin. ___________________
6. The Germanic tribes helped to shape the feudal system in these lands. ______________________
7. In the feudal system, kings granted trusted vassals land and privileges. ______________________
8. Knights became experts in military skills like sword fighting. _________________________
For each of the following sentences, circle the relative pronoun or subordinating conjunction, underline
the dependent clause, and identify each dependent clause as either adjective or adverb.
Example: Equally important as military prowess was the code of chivalry that defined the
expected behavior of noble men. ________________________
9. Charles I, who was also known as Charlemagne, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor on Dec. 25,
A.D. 800. _________________________
10.After Charlemagne was crowned, Europe became more unified. _________________________
11.Since the official religion in Europe was Christianity, European leaders sought to limit Islamic
influence. __________________________
12.The Middle Eastern region that is now Jordan and Israel was a Muslim stronghold. ______________
13.During the crusades, knights fought in the Holy Lands because they believed they were honoring
God. _________________________
More practice: http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=adjective-adverb-clauses
Sentence types
14. Which sentence is simple?
a. Dante was exiled from his home as punishment for his part in a political scheme.
b. He never returned home; he wrote about his regrets in the Divine Comedy.
c. The Divine Comedy tells the redemption story of a man who has strayed from the right path.
d. Because this is a story with two meanings (literal and symbolic), it is an allegory.
15. Which sentence is compound?
a. The Divine Comedy is a trilogy, a story in three parts.
b. The first part is Inferno; it is Dante’s journey through hell.
c. In Dante’s hell, sinners receive punishment that fits the crime or symbolic retribution.
d. Dante’s hell is a world created and controlled by God to punish those who have broken divine
law.
16. Which sentence is complex?
a. The Divine Comedy was written in Italian, and this angered the religious leaders.
b. Officials wanted all written information in Latin so that they could control the message and
audience.
c. Writing in vernacular was revolutionary in terms of communication.
d. During the Renaissance, other artists rediscover the culture of the Classical Era.
17. Which sentence is compound-complex?
a. Petrarch is another famous Italian author who invented the sonnet.
b. His sonnets are called “Italian” or “Petrarchan” sonnets.
c. Italian sonnets have 14 lines of iambic pentameter, and they are composed of an octave and a
sestet.
d. Petrarch wrote about love and nature; all of his sonnets were about Laura, a lady that he never
really knew.
More practice: http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/language_arts/sentence_types/quiz1848.html
Parts of Sentence
William Shakespeare, maybe the world’s most famous author, wrote sonnets in
England a couple of hundred years after Petrarch lived.
18. What is the appositive in the above sentence?
a. author
c. sonnets
b. William Shakespeare
d. Petrarch
19. What is the direct object in the above sentence?
a. Petrarch
c. author
b. William Shakespeare
d. sonnets
20. What is the subordinating conjunction in the above sentence?
a. after
c. perhaps
b. of
d. in
Active vs. Passive Voice: Rewrite each of these sentences and change from passive voice to active voice.
Video explanation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUAjXa71_dc
21. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play written by William Shakespeare.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
22. At one point in the play, Bottom is turned into a jack-ass.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
More practice: http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-voice_quiz.htm
Capitalization & Punctuation
23. In a midsummer nights dream lysander tells hermia the course of true love never did run smooth
24. Lord what fools these mortals be says puck as he watches them in the forest
25. Many of our modern day expressions originated during the renaissance like
26. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day writes shakespeare thou are more lovely and more temperate
27. Did thou callest me short demanded hermia
More practice: http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar_quiz/question_marks_1.asp
Fragments, Run-ons, and Comma Splices
Explanation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQfJdhyeQfU
28. Shakespeare wrote hundreds of sonnets but he is more famous for his plays.
a. he is most famous
c. sonnets; but
b. sonnets, but
d. no error
29. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, a famous poet, and was a father to three children.
a. no commas needed
c. , a famous poet:
b. , a famous poet;
d. no error
30. After the death of his son Shakespeare wrote more tragedies and histories than comedies.
a. of his son,
c. no error
b. of his son’s
More practice: http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=runons-comma-splices-fragments
II. Reading Passages (How Siegfried Was Slain, Inferno, sonnets, Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Definitions to Know (Look for definitions in the back of your literature book or any handouts from this
semester): MAKE NOTE CARDS OR DEFINE ON YOUR OWN PAPER.
Active voice
Allegory
Alliteration
Allusion
Antithesis
Aside
Assonance
Blank Verse
Consonance
Couplet
Drama
Dramatic Irony
English Sonnet
Feudal values
Hyperbole
Meter
Monologue
Octave
Oxymoron
Paradox
Parody
Parable
Parallelism
Passive voice
Personification
Petrarch
Pun
Quatrain
Satire
Sestet
Vernacular
Verbal Irony
Tercet
Stanza
Soliloquy
Situational Irony
Metaphor
Medieval romance
Medieval epic
Imagery
Italian Sonnet
Simile
Shakespeare
Iambic Pentameter
Idiom