Study Guide for Mid-Term Exam
1. oxymoron – contradictory words beside each other
Examples: farewell reception
genuine imitation
genuinely fake
growing small
incredibly real
2. personification – giving human traits to non-human objects
Example: the wind’s icy fingers
3. hyperbole – extreme exaggeration
Example: Nobody listens to that song anymore.
Old Mr. Johnson has been teaching here since the Stone Age.
4. simile – comparison of two unlike things using “like” or “as”
Example: She is as pretty as a picture.
5. metaphor – comparison of two unlike things by saying one thing is the other
Example: He is a bear in the morning before he has his coffee.
6. allusion – reference to a person, event, or something in literature in a attempt to make a comparison.
Example: Christine was a Scrooge when it came to Christmas.
7. plot – events in a story

8. exposition – introduces the characters and setting
setting – the time and place of a story
9. climax – highest point of action in a story
10. resolution – tying up loose ends of a story
11. falling action – action following the climax of a story that leads to a resolution
12. rising action – events leading up to the climax of a story
13. biography – a book about a person’s life written by another person
14. autobiography – a book about a person’s life written by that person
15. connotation – the associations or emotions connected to a word
16. denotation – the dictionary definition of a word
Vocabulary words and definitions: abandon - leave without planning to come back vacant - empty; not filled bachelor - a man who is not married tact - ability to say the right thing hardship - something that is hard to bear numb - without the power of feeling peril - danger sinister - evil; wicked

wager - bet minimum - the least possible amount humid - moist; damp scarce - hard to get; rare annual - once a year
Text Structure:
Cause and Effect - There are many reasons why people dance. Some people dance for fun, just because they enjoy dancing. At other times, people dance for exercise or for weight loss, because dancing can really get your heart beating. Also, sometimes people dance to try to get boyfriends or girlfriends. Some people think that good dancing is attractive. There are many reasons why people dance.
Sequence - The foundation of every pizza is the crust, and good crust comes from good dough.
You might be surprised to learn that pizza dough is made from nothing more than flour, water, yeast, olive oil, salt, and sometimes sugar. Start by adding your yeast packet to a cup of warm water. Let the yeast activate, and then add two cups of flour, two tablespoons of olive oil, two teaspoons of sugar, and a teaspoon of salt. Mix all of that together and wait half an hour for the dough to rise. Now you’re ready to roll it out!
Chronological Order - Pizza is so old that its origins are not quite clear to historians, but the word pizza comes from the Latin verb pinsere, meaning to press. It may also be related to the
Greek word pitta. In any event the word “pizza” was first documented in Italy in 997 AD.
Whatever they were eating back then, however, was quite different from the pizza that we know today. Pizza as we know it could not really have been invented until sometime during the 16th century, when tomatoes were brought to Europe from America. This was big, but in my opinion the greatest development in the history of pizza occurred in 1905, when pizza was first sold in
America. The rest, as they say, is history.
Spatial - Jimmy’s pizzeria is my favorite pizza place in the city, but you wouldn’t be able to tell that just by looking at the outside. It is an inconspicuous brown brick building. It doesn’t even have a sign, just the name of the establishment in three-inch letters on the storefront window.
The inside isn’t much to speak of either. There are some chrome swivel stools along a laminate countertop that makes an L shape, separating the register and kitchen area from the dining area.
Booth seating lines the eating area of the restaurant area and a few favorable reviews from local publications are framed and displayed on the walls. Yeah, the aesthetics of the place are a little underwhelming, but forget the scenery. I go to Jimmy’s for the pizza.
Compare and Contrast
These days, students and their caretakers have more choices when it comes to selecting a public school. In addition to the traditional neighborhood schools, Charter schools have popped up in major cities across the country. Both charter schools and neighborhood schools fill traditional

roles like providing instruction, serving lunch and other meals, and administering the state tests.
But charter schools and neighborhood schools differ in many important ways. One key difference is the amount of time students spend in school. In Chicago, students who attend neighborhood schools do so for around 180 days in a year, and each day is slightly over six hours long. On the contrary, students who attend charter schools do so for around 200 days in a year, and most charter school days are over eight hours long. While both neighborhood and charter schools provide free public education to students meeting enrollment criteria, students who attend charter schools spend much more time in class.
Author’s Purpose (to entertain, inform, or persuade)
A section in a history book describing the conditions and causes of the Great Depression in the Midwest in the 1930s. (inform)
An article where the author argues that an IPOD music player is better than a ZUNE
(Persuasive)
The story of a young athlete who takes steroids and his life and future fall apart
Combining Sentences
Jordan broke his arm, so he had to go to the hospital.
My dog chased a rabbit around the yard, but he couldn’t catch it.
Amelia opened her locker and grabbed her books for class.
Susan ate an entire cake, yet she was still hungry.
You can travel to Greece, or you can travel to Mexico.
Maria didn’t finish her essay, nor did she finish her math.
Sandra could not go to the concert, for she didn’t have enough money.
Point of View
-Narrative Perspective: First-Person
And we scrounged. Next to survival, scrounge was probably the most important word in our new vocabulary. We found a store that was throwing out water-damaged mattresses. Getting them home was a problem, since we had to make two trips, leaving Brad and Katie, armed with sticks to guard over the remained. I truly expected them to be challenged by some gang boss, but they said that the only person who came by was a scrawny little rat of a girl living alone. We let her have one of the mattresses.

-Narrative Perspective: Third-Person Omniscient
At dawn, Mae Tuck set out on her horse for the wood at the edge of the village of Treegap. She was going there, as she did once every ten years, to meet her two sons, Miles and Jesse, and she was feeling at ease. At noon time, Winnie Foster, whose family owned the Treegap wood, lost her patience at last and decided to think about running away.
-Narrative Perspective: Third-person limited
To his astonishment, Charlie found himself standing next to his bicycle, back where he had entered the swamp. That was bizarre and upsetting—but not as bad as the realization that he was still holding the skull. He thought he had dropped it before he raced out the door. He certainly hadn’t intended to steal the thing. He didn’t even really want it!