English 9 Benchmark
Study Guide
Setting
 Time and place of the story
 Analyzing the setting helps the reader
understand the meaning of the story
 What is the setting of “Lady, or the Tiger?”
• amphitheater
– What purpose does it serve?
• Court of law
Theme
 message of the story
 Identify the theme in “The Interlopers”
– Situations such as near-death experiences can
change attitudes that have existed for a long
time
Elements of Plot
 Exposition
– Includes setting & introduction to characters
 Rising Conflict
– Conflict introduced
 Climax
– Turning point
 Falling conflict
– Conflicts are resolved
 Resolution
– Conclusion to the story
Suspense
 What details from “The Most Dangerous
Game” add to the suspense of the story?
– Rainsford learns that sailors are afraid of Ship
Trap Island
– Ivan meets Rainsford at the door by pointing a
gun at his chest
– Rainsford learns that he is to be Zaroff’s next
hunting subject
External Conflict:
struggle occurs b/t a character &
an outside force
Character vs.
Character
Character vs.
Nature
Character vs.
Society
Internal conflict
 Character vs. self
 Identify the internal conflict the princess
faces in “Lady, Or the Tiger?”
– Princess is struggling w/ her love & jealousy
for the young man
Irony
Situational Irony Verbal irony
Dramatic irony
Something
happens in the
plot that we
don’t expect
The reader
knows
something that
the characters do
not know
Name examples
of irony from
“The
Interlopers”
A character says
something but
means
something else
Vocabulary
 Read a sentence from a short story read in
class that uses a vocabulary word.
 Use context clues to determine the meaning
of the vocabulary word.
Writing: Paragraph
 Identify topic sentence
 Identify concluding sentence
 Identify related details in a paragraph
Grammar
 Parts of Speech
–
–
–
–
Noun
Pronoun
Adjective
Verb
• Action vs. linking
• Transitive vs. Intransitive
–
–
–
–
Adverb
Interjection
Conjunction
Preposition
 Parts of a Sentence
– Simple
subject/predicate
– Complete
subject/predicate
– Order of
Subject/Predicate
– Sentence, Fragment
and Run-ons