English III Honors: Midterm Exam Study Guide (2011-2012)
Literature (texts and periods):
Puritan/Colonial Period
“Here Follow Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House…”, Anne Bradstreet
“Huswifery,” Edward Taylor
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (excerpt), “Sarah Pierrepont” and “My Sense of
Divine Things,” Jonathan Edwards
Revolutionary/Age of Reason
“The Autobiography” (excerpt) and “Sayings of Poor Richard” (from Poor Richard’s
Almanac), Benjamin Franklin
“Speech to the Virginia Convention,” Patrick Henry
“The Crisis, No.1” (excerpt), Thomas Paine
Romanticism (including “Fireside Poets”)
“Rip Van Winkle,” Washington Irving
“Thanatopsis,” William Cullen Bryant
“The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” and “The Cross of Snow,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“The Chambered Nautilus” and “Old Ironsides,” Oliver Wendell Holmes
American Renaissance / Trancendentalism
“Nature” (excerpt) and “Self-Reliance” (excerpt), Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Walden, or Life in the Woods,” Henry David Thoreau
“Resistance to Civil Government,” Henry David Thoreau
“Letter from Birmingham City Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dark Romantics / Gothic
“The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Raven,” Edgar Allen Poe
“The Minister’s Black Veil,” Nathaniel Hawthorne
Moby-Dick (“Loomings,” “Ahab,” “The Quarter-Deck,” “Moby Dick,” “The Whiteness of the
Whale,” “The First Lowering,” “The Hyena,” “The Tail,” “The Castaway,” “A Squeeze of the
Hand,” “The Candles,” “The Symphony”), Herman Melville
New American Poetry
“I Hear America Singing,” “Song of Myself” (10, 33, 44, 49, 50, 51, 52),” “To Think of Time,”
Walt Whitman
“Heart! We will forget him!”, “If you were coming in the Fall,” “The Soul selects her own
Society,” “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church,” “I taste a liquor never brewed,”
“Much Madness is divinest Sense,” “Apparently with no surprise,” “Tell the Truth but
tell it slant,” “Success is counted sweetest,” “Because I could not stop for Death,” and
“I heard a Fly buzz—when I died,” Emily Dickinson
Modern Drama
The Crucible, Arthur Miller
Contemporary (Postmodern) Novel
Kindred, Octavia Butler (main characters, events, themes)
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Literary Concepts/Terms:
Conceit
Metaphor
Extended metaphor
Simile
Image
Diction
Figures of speech
Inversion
Paraphrase
Meter
Rhyme
Aphorism
Autobiography
Primary source
Almanac
Political speech
Anaphora
Epistrophe
Parallelism
Repetition
Pathos
Logos
(Ethos)
Elements of tragedy
Tragic flaw
Moment of recognition
Catharsis
Allusion
Character/Characterization
Irony
Pun
Persuasion
Either/or fallacy
Syntax
Rhetorical question
Periodic sentence
Peroration (memorable conclusion)
Ad hominem (personal attack)
Thesis
Purpose
Audience
Point of view
Bias
Rationalism
Setting
Stereotype
Motifs
Tone
Alliteration
Assonance
Consonance
Personification
Apostrophe
Symbolism
Paradox
Individualism
Connotation
Atmosphere
Refrain
Onomatopoeia
Parable
Theme
Slant rhyme (vs. exact rhyme)
Analogy
BE ABLE TO DEFINE AND/OR RECOGNIZE EXAMPLES OF THE ABOVE TERMS. KNOW
MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS AND APPROX. YEARS FOR EACH LITERARY PERIOD STUDIED.
KNOW MAIN CHARACTERS/EVENTS/THEMES FOR EACH TEXT.
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Types of Questions:
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Passage Recognition (Rereading/reviewing text will do a lot more than SparkNotes.)
What is the text?
Who is the author?
Who is the speaker? (if relevant)
What is the context of this passage?
What is going on in the passage?
What rhetorical devices/strategies are present?
What is the purpose? tone? atmosphere? setting? etc.
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Vocabulary (Not writing out definitions. Possibly matching/multiple choice.)
Multiple choice / matching
Fill in the blank
Short answer
Short essay (1-2 paragraphs). No full-length essays.
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