Name: _____________________________________
Hour: ________
American Literature - Spring 2015 Final Review Guide
Instructions: I have assembled a comprehensive final review guide for your benefit. I would suggest completing
everything in this packet between now and the time of your final exam. I haven't given you any "busy work" here - I only
included questions that I believe will actually help to prepare you for the final.
 Note: I will not give you any points for this! No credit whatsoever.
 Why should you still complete this?
Section 1 - Quack Vocabulary

I am strongly recommending that you complete the following chart in its entirety! I can almost guarantee that
nobody remembers the definitions to each of the words.
 Each of these will appear on the final. Review!
QUACK Word
Definition
Synonym
Antonym
Extol
Pugnacious
Quell
Artisan
Kindle
Bucolic
Pretentious
Convivial
Discrete
Discreet
Fabricate
Gesticulate
Laud
Conflagration
Belabor
Reiterate
Induce
Soporific
Anarchy
Strident
Nonchalant
Lethargy
Recondite
Conspicuous
Archaic
Imminent
Section 2 - Grammar


Your final will ask you questions about the following grammatical concepts:
o Apostrophes
o Commas
o Parallelism
o Pronoun / Antecedent
o Colon / Semicolon
o Transitions
I have assigned USA Test Prep assignments to help you improve your skills on each of the above skills!
Section 3 - Literary Narrative
Excerpt from "The Fall of the House of Usher"
by Edgar Allan Poe
... During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low
in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found
myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was; but,
with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling
was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even
the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the scene before me—upon the mere house, and
the simple landscape features of the domain—upon the bleak walls—upon the vacant eye-like windows—upon a few
rank sedges—and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees—with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to
no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveler upon opium—the bitter lapse into every-day
life—the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart—an unredeemed
dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it—I
paused to think—what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher? It was a mystery all
insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered. I was forced to fall back
upon the unsatisfactory conclusion that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objects
which have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among considerations beyond our depth. It
was possible, I reflected, that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture,
would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression; and, acting upon this idea, I
reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled luster by the dwelling, and gazed
down—but with a shudder even more thrilling than before—upon the remodeled and inverted images of the gray sedge,
and the ghastly tree stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows.
1. Which sentence from the passage shows that the speaker looks for (but does not find) beauty in the house?
A) With the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit.
B) What was it--I paused to think--what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher?
C) It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered.
D) The feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually
receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible.
2. Which image personifies the House of Usher?
A) the mere house
B) a few rank sedges
C) the vacant eye-like windows
D) the simple landscape features of the domain
3. The dominant mood of the passage is
A) angry
B) fearful
C) gloomy
D) vengeful
4. The author uses descriptive language to develop what tone in this passage?
A) humorous
B) optimistic
C) relaxing
D) sinister
5. During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low
in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found
myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.
Which of these author's techniques is used in this phrase?
A) hyperbole
B) imagery
C) irony
D) onomatopoeia
6. The alliteration in the first sentence creates an image of
A) silly springtime
B) sinister darkness
C) hospitable autumn
D) weathering valleys
Excerpt from "Jim Smily and His Jumping Frog"
by Mark Twain
MR. A. WARD,
DEAR SIR:—
1
Well, I called on good-natured, garrulous old Simon Wheeler, and I inquired after your friend Leonidas W. Smily, as you
requested me to do, and I hereunto append the result. If you can get any information out of it you are cordially welcome
to it. I have a lurking suspicion that your Leonidas W. Smily is a myth—that you never knew such a personage, and that
you only conjectured that if I asked old Wheeler about him it would remind him of his infamous Jim Smily, and he would
go to work and bore me nearly to death with some infernal reminiscence of him as long and tedious as it should be
useless to me. If that was your design, Mr. Ward, it will gratify you to know that it succeeded.
2
I found Simon Wheeler dozing comfortably by the barroom stove of the little old dilapidated tavern in the ancient
mining camp of Boomerang, and I noticed that he was fat and bald-headed, and had an expression of winning gentleness
and simplicity upon his tranquil countenance. He roused up and gave me good-day. I told him a friend of mine had
commissioned me to make some inquiries about a cherished companion of his boyhood named Leonidas W. Smily—Rev.
Leonidas W. Smily—a young minister of the gospel, who he had heard was at one time a resident of this village of
Boomerang. I added that if Mr. Wheeler could tell me anything about this Rev. Leonidas W. Smily, I would feel under
many obligations to him.
3
Simon Wheeler backed me into a corner and blockaded me there with his chair—and then sat down and reeled off the
monotonous narrative which follows this paragraph. He never smiled, he never frowned, he never changed his voice
from the quiet, gently-flowing key to which he turned the initial sentence, he never betrayed the slightest suspicion of
enthusiasm—but all through the interminable narrative there ran a vein of impressive earnestness and sincerity, which
showed me plainly that so far from his imagining that there was anything ridiculous or funny about his story, he
regarded it as a really important matter, and admired its two heroes as men of transcendent genius in finesse. To me,
the spectacle of a man drifting serenely along through such a queer yarn without ever smiling was exquisitely absurd. As
I said before, I asked him to tell me what he knew of Rev. Leonidas W. Smily, and he replied as follows. I let him go on in
his own way, and never interrupted him once.
7. What caused Simon Wheeler to be reminded of Jim Smily?
A) Rev. Leonidas W. Smily is a myth.
B) He had heard a story from Mr. A. Ward.
C) The narrator said that he would be thankful.
D) The narrator asked him about Rev. Leonidas W. Smily.
8. What inference can the reader make about Simon Wheeler?
A) Simon Wheeler is a lonely man who loves to tell stories.
B) Simon Wheeler is friends with the Rev. Leonidas W. Smily.
C) Simon Wheeler owns the tavern that the speaker has entered.
D) Simon Wheeler is one of the heroes in the story he is about to tell.
9. What can the reader conclude about the story that Simon Wheeler is going to tell the narrator?
A) The story will be long and tedious.
B) Smily thinks the story is ridiculous.
C) The story will be short and succinct.
D) The narrator thinks the story is serious.
10. Well, I called on good-natured, garrulous old Simon Wheeler, and I inquired after your friend Leonidas W. Smily, as
you requested me to do, and I hereunto append the result.
A) cruel and unkind
B) overweight and generally unhealthy
C) quiet, untalkative, and mostly silent
D) excessively talkative in a rambling, roundabout manner
11. How does the theme of a story within a story apply to this passage?
A) The story told by the narrator has two meanings.
B) The story has been told within other stories before.
C) The narrator of the story is really telling two stories.
D) The reader is reading a story about the narrator telling a story.
12. What effect is MOST fully achieved by the structure and content of this excerpt?
A) They lead the reader to focus on the feelings of the letter-writer.
B) They make the reader wonder if the letter-writer stayed in Boomerang.
C) They cause the reader to recount the descriptive details of the infamous Jim Smily.
D) They present images to draw the reader's attention to Simon Wheeler's tedious tale.
Section 4 - Argument / Editorial

Refer to the attached readings / questions from USA Test Prep:
o MLK's "I Have a Dream"
o Mary O'Dell's "The Ultimate Fighting Championship"