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Key to EXAM 1 -- English 215
Part One. Objective. 2 points each (50 total points)
Write your answers on the sheet provided. For multiple choice questions, please use
CAPITAL letters
1. The “picture-making mechanism” going blank is a reference to (a) the narrator of
“Cathedral” losing his sense of reality; (b) Paul’s consciousness dying in the moment he commits
suicide; (c) the speaker’s childhood reverie at the end of “Birches”; (d) one of the speaker’s
numerous insulting remarks about his neighbor in “Mending Wall”; (e) none of the above
2. Where does “Young Goodman Brown” take place?
a. New Orleans
b. Concord
c. Salem
d. Manhattan
e. None of the above
3. When Paul learns that his crime is known and his father is on his way to New York, he
a. starts experiencing the same sinking feeling he used to have when he had to return home
from the theater and decides to hide at Charley Edwards’ house.
b. is grateful that his father agreed to pay back the money so that he does not have to go to
jail and decides to return to Cordelia Street and work as an usher.
c. starts experiencing the same sinking feeling he used to have when he had to return home
from the theater and realizes that returning to Cordelia Street is worse than going to jail.
d. all of the above
e. none of the above
4. A staff seeming to “wriggle in sympathy” like a snake occurs in what text? (Short answer).
“Young Goodman Brown”
5. The title of “Cathedral” refers to (a) a line from a Shakespeare play about the celestial bodies;
(b) the necessity of faith in the modern world; (c) an image in Poe’s poem, “The Raven”; (d) an
African-American spiritual song
6. This woman is dead by the time “Cathedral” begins. (Short answer) Robert’s wife.
7. Which image pattern is often found in “Birches?” (a) apples and grapes; (b) swollen bellies
and bundles; (c) pine, apple, locust, and water oak trees; (d) both A and B; (e) both B and C; (f)
none of the above.
8. Elves appear facetiously (as a sarcastic reference) in which text? (a) “Mending Wall”; (b)
“Birches”; (c) “Cathedral” (d) “Paul’s Case”; (e) none of the above
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9. At the beginning of Cather’s “Paul’s Case,” Paul’s teachers “were asked to state their
respective charges against him.” What is true about their sense of the “real cause of the trouble”
with Paul?
a) They “state their respective charges against him” with “rancor” and are certain that his
mother’s death and his troubled relationship with his father are the cause of his problems.
b) His math teacher describes how he acted when he appeared at the theater where Paul
works as an usher and suggests that the cause of Paul’s trouble is due to his artistic
inclinations. The other teachers agree.
c) They have a hard time putting into words the true origin of his problems, but they sense it
has to do with his “hysterically defiant manner,” the “contempt which they all knew he
felt for them, and which he seemingly made not the least effort to conceal.”
d) All of the above
e) None of the above
10. How does the main character in Cather’s “Paul’s Case” die?
a. He shoots himself with his father’s revolver.
b. He dies of malnutrition in a Pittsburgh jail.
c. He jumps in front of a train.
d. None of the above
11. What two types of trees does Frost use as metaphors for human relationships in “Mending
Wall?” (a) pines and birches; (b) birches and apples; (c) apples and pines; (d) birches and
evergreens; (e) none of the above.
12. Which character(s) does not appear in “Paul’s Case?” (a) Paul’s teachers; (b) a Yale
freshman; (c) Charley Edwards; (d) a museum guard; (e) they all appear in the story.
13. This phrase is attributed to the neighbor in “Mending Wall” and is repeated in the poem.
(Short answer) “Good fences make good neighbors.”
14. In “Cathedral,” what activity does the narrator’s wife do that he belittles or does not regard
as important? (a) she writes poetry; (b) she paints watercolors; (c) she volunteers at a homeless
shelter; (c) she works at a pet shelter; (d) none of the above.
15. On the wall above Paul’s bed hangs what? (a) portraits of John Calvin and George
Washington; (b) a framed needlepoint of a red flower; (c) a framed reproduction of one of
Gaugin’s Tahiti paintings; (d) a poster for a theatrical production signed by Charley Edwards; (e)
none of the above.
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In these next 4 questions, write the name of the text from which the quoted passage comes.
16. “What’s that thing?” [she] says to [him] in a loud voice, pointing to a tangle of yarn on a
piece of canvas. [He] holds it up for [her] to see. “It’s my needlepoint,” he explains. “This is a
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Star Trek pillow cover.” “That’s what a woman would do,” says [she]. “Great day in the
morning!” “All the big football players on TV do it,” he says. “You’re always trying to fool me.
I don’t believe you for one minute. You don’t know what to do with yourself—that’s the whole
trouble. Sewing!” Shiloh
17. “First you have a topic sentence,” she explains to [him]. “Then you divide it up. Your
secondary topic has to be connected to your primary topic.” To [him], this sounds intimidating.
“I never was any good in English,” he says. “It makes a lot of sense.” “What are you doing this
for, anyhow?” She shrugs. “It’s something to do.” She stands up and lifts her dumbbells a few
times. “Driving a rig, nobody cared about my English.” Shiloh
18. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow crust-Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen. Birches
19. [He] never went up Cordelia Street without a shudder of loathing. His home was next to the
house of the Cumberland minister. He approached it tonight with the nerveless sense of defeat,
the hopeless feeling of sinking back forever into ugliness and commonness that he had always
had when he came home. The moment he turned into Cordelia Street he felt the waters close
above his head. Paul’s Case
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Match the item in Column A with the correct item in Column B. Use CAPITAL letters on the
answer sheet provided.
Column A
20. invisible weights
21. loaded gun
22. a Yale freshman
23. marijuana
24. blank verse
25. pink ribbon
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
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Column B
associated with Frost
symbolizing potential violence
referred to in Hawthorne story
referred to in Cather story
associated with a woman
referred to in “Cathedral”
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Part Two. Essay.
In your blue book, write a developed, specific essay
of at least 500 words on one of the following topics.
50 points total.
(a) Analyze the theme of the journey in “Young Goodman Brown.” Discuss the symbolism of
the journey, why he undertakes it, what happens during it, and how it affects him in the end. Be
sure to include discussion of the forest setting and how it functions in the story.
(b) Analyze the theme of rapid, traumatic change as it appears in the story “Shiloh.” Discuss this
theme with reference to the characters and situations described in the story. Be sure to consider
the ending and the setting of the battlefield at Shiloh.
(c) “Cathedral” is all about the senses. Analyze how Carver uses all of the human senses in the
story to shed light on the changing nature of the narrator, his relationship with his guest and his
wife, and on the idea of a cathedral itself and what it represents symbolically in the story.
Extra Credit. 1 point each.
EC1. In “Design,” what is described as “dimpled?” A spider
EC2. What is a “heal-all?” A flower
EC3. What is a catechism? A form of instruction in the Christian church based on questions and
answers
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