2011 English 4 Midterm Review
The midterm will consist of 50 multiple-choice questions and a choice of 2 of 5 essays.
Here’s the breakdown…
Multiple Choice Section
The multiple-choice section is broken up into 7 sections:
Short Stories, Hamlet, Siddhartha, Into the Wild, Research, Reading Comprehension, and Kite Runner.
Short Stories – be prepared to match quotes to the story from which they came. The quotes reflect major plot
and/or thematic elements of the stories.
 Be familiar with the 3 stories: “Araby,” “A & P,” and Angela’s Ashes (Ch. 1)
 Review the definition of “Epiphany,” and make sure you know what the epiphanies were in “Araby” and
“A & P”
Hamlet – be prepared to answer basic plot-based multiple-choice questions.
 Know these characters and their role in the play: King Hamlet’s Ghost, Prince Hamlet, Horatio, Laertes,
Ophelia, Polonius
Siddhartha – be prepared to answer plot-based questions on the characters and events in the novel
 Know these characters and their role in the story: Siddhartha, Govinda, Gotama, Kamala, Kamaswami,
Vasudeva, Siddhartha’s son, and the Samanas
Into the Wild – be prepared to answer analytical multiple-choice questions.
 Be familiar with McCandless’ pseudonymn, his issues with his family, his moment of enlightenment and
forgiveness, and the role of his friend Ron Franz in his journey to enlightenment.
Research – in terms of research, you should know all about plagiarism, proper paraphrasing, proper MLA
citations, proper punctuation of direct quotes, and block quotes.
 Here is an example of a properly punctuated and cited quote:
Siddhartha says, “I, also, would like to look and smile, sit and walk like that, so free, so worthy, so
restrained, so candid, so childlike and mysterious” (Hesse 25).
Reading Comprehension – be prepared to show your reading comprehension skills. You will read both a short
story and an article; you will answer multiple-choice questions based on your understanding of the texts.
 Be prepared to answer questions on plot, tone/mood, irony, and character analysis.
Kite Runner – be prepared to answer plot-based questions on the characters and events in the novel
 Know these characters and their role in the story: Amir, Baba, Hassan, Ali, Assef, and Rahim Khan.
 Know the background information about Afghanistan, Pashtuns, Hazaras, and the sport of kite
fighting/running
Essay Section
You will write a total of 2 essays for this exam – you will get a chance to choose 2 out of 5 essay prompts.
The essays will be based on the following ideas:
1. In the first essay you will discuss the lessons learned by 3 different characters from any of the literature
we have read so far. You will show how the theme “quest for self” applies to those 3 characters.
2. In the second essay you will be provided with the text for the “to be or not to be” soliloquy for you to
translate and analyze.
3. In the third essay you will discuss 3 lessons that Siddhartha and Chris McCandless learned. Remember
McCandless is a modern day Siddhartha. You will relate their lessons to your own personal
experiences.
4. In the fourth essay you will discuss what you learned from your research book and paper.
5. In the fifth essay you will compare and contrast Amir with Baba.