Mid-Term Study Guide
Knowing the answers to these questions will prepare you to answer the questions on the mid-term.
While some questions will not be represented on the test, knowing this is a good review for the story.
Use your sign on to my.hrw.com to access the stories in the online textbook. Use your notes.
“Harrison Bergeron”
QUESTIONS: Answer the following questions.
1. What has guaranteed equality in the story?
2. How old is Harrison?
3. What has happened to Harrison and why?
4. How has the government made George and Hazel equal? What does George have to wear?
And what does this do?
5. What does Hazel say she would do if she were Handicap General?
6. What is the mood of the story?
7. What is the tone?
8. What is the name of the Handicap General?
9. What is the consequence for taking lessening the weight of the handicap bag?
10. What reason does George give for not trying to cheat?
a. Because of this reason, what can we infer about George’s opinion of the current laws?
11. Why wasn’t the news bulletin clear at first to the George and Hazel and other viewers?
12. Why did the ballerina apologize about her voice?
13. What is the news bulletin?
14. Describe Harrison Bergeron with all of his handicaps?
15. What does Harrison declare on television?
16. What happens to Harrison? Be specific.
“Everyday Use”
1. Identify who the narrator is and comment on how Walker’s choice of the narrator could be
significant.
2. Identify how the narrator describes her garden and what this description would signify.
3. What is the importance of the TV show in the story? How does it help us understand Mama
and Dee?
4. Comment on Mama’s dream. What could it tell us about the characters and the themes of
the story?
5. Identify the physical descriptions of the three women in the story. Make a list of their
personality traits. Then discuss what each of these women could symbolize in the story.
6. Comment on the three women’s responses to the fire.
7. What is the importance of the quilt in the story? What does it represent? What does it mean
to Dee, Mama and Maggie? Do these three women differ from one another in relation to
their perceptions of the quilt? If yes, in what way(s).
8. What could be the significance of quilt making from a black feminist perspective?
9. What is the importance of names in the story? For example, what does “Wangero Leewanika
Kemanjo” signify in the story?
10. Discuss the significance of the “churn” in relation to the three women in the story.
11. What could Dee’s taking a Polaroid photograph signify? Why do you think Dee prefers to
exclude herself from the photograph?
12. Why does Maggie have a real smile at the end of the story? Comment on the mother’s choice
at the end.
13. Why is the story titled “Everyday Use”?
14. Why does the mother compare her daughters to different animals? What does this reveal
about her attitudes toward Dee and Maggie?
15. To what extent would you consider the story a critique of the Black Power Movement?
“The Interlopers”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
How did the Gradwitzes receive all the land they have?
Why do Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym not get along?
What is Ulrich von Gradwitz hunting in the story?
What was Ulrich von Gradwitz’s wish when he wandered away from his crew?
What happened once Ulrich von Gradwitz and George Znaeym meet in the forest?
How do the two men behave once they are stuck?
What makes Gradwitz start to behave differently?
What happens to them at the end?
Sentence Types
A simple sentence consists of an independent clause, so it contains a subject and a verb. It does
NOT contain either a dependent clause or another simple sentence.
Ex.
short simple sentence: The dog barked.
long simple sentence: Leaning first this way and then that, the large tan dog with a wide black
collar barked loudly at the full moon last night from under the lilac bush in the shadow of the
north side of the house.
A compound sentence consists of two or more simple sentences joined by
(1) a comma followed by a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so):
Ex. The dog barked, and the cat yowled.
(2) a semicolon: The dog barked; the cat yowled.
A complex sentence consists of a combination of an independent clause and a
independent clause.
1) The dog that was in the street howled loudly.
2) A student who is hungry would never pass up a hamburger.
Active/Passive Voice
In a sentence using active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action expressed in the verb.
Ex. The dog bit the boy.
Sally mailed the letter yesterday.
In a sentence using passive voice, the subject of the sentence is being acted upon.
Ex, The boy was bitten by the dog.
The letter was mailed out yesterday by Sally.