AP Language and Composition
2014-2015 Final Exam Study Guide
NOTE: This is a study guide. Therefore, the exam is not limited to this information. Anything we have covered in class this semester
is subject to being covered on the exam.
Format
-Multiple Choice
-75 to 100 questions
-Passages will be included on the exam.
Texts We Have Studied (Not Limited To)
1 .“On Morality” by Joan Didion
2. “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell
3. “Regarding the Pain of Others” by Susan Sontag
4. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr.
5. Letter to Martin Luther King Jr. from group of clergymen
6. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
7. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
8. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
9. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
10. “The Toxic Truth About Sugar” by Robert H. Lustig,
Laura A. Schmidt & Claire D. Brindis
11. “What’s Eating America?” by Michael Pollan
12. “Power Steer” by Michael Pollan
13. “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift
Yellow Pages
Review your yellow pages.
Satire
Review your satire notes. The PowerPoint is available on the class webpage.
Vocabulary
There will be a section for academic vocabulary and SAT vocabulary.
Rhetorical Terms—Not limited to these terms.
1. imagery
17. claim
2. allusion
18. qualifier
3. rhetorical question
19. understatement
4. logos
20. parallel structure
5. pathos
21. metaphor
6. ethos
22. contrast
7. juxtaposition
23. repetition
8. antithesis
24. simile
9. tone
25. direct address
10. connotation
26. syllogism
11. denotation
27. anecdote
12. diction
28. complex sentence
13. defining
29. compound-complex sentence
14. sarcasm
30. parallel structure
15. anaphora
31. irony
16. refutation
32. counterargument
SAT Vocabulary
- Terms covered during our study of The Great Gatsby. These should be in your notes!
1. Abdicated
11. Indignant
2. Acrimony
12. Admonitory
3. Atavistic
13. Cynical
4. Pragmatic
14. Hortatory
5. Assuage
15. Proprietary
6 Didactic
16. Pensive
7. Ambivalence
17. Laud
8. Antipathy
18. Eminent
9. Polemic
19. Benefactor
10. Futile
20. Pious
33. imperative sentence
34. paradox
35. apostrophe
36. inverted sentence
37. satire
38. details
39. metonymy
40. analogy
41. cumulative sentence
42. synecdoche
43. diatribe
44. asyndeton
45. polysyndeton
46. antecedent
21. Oracles
22. Cumber
23. Ineffable
24. Candor
25. Mélange
26. Pugnacious
27. Languid
28. Prevalence
29. Deterrent
30. Genial
Syntax
Syntax= syn (together) + tax (arrangement), or the arrangement of words in a sentence
*Omission Techniques:
1. asyndeton: the deliberate omission of conjunctions in a series of related words, phrases, or clauses.
Ex: “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.” –Proverb
2. ellipsis: the deliberate omission of a word or words that are readily implied by the text.
Ex: “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” –Alexander Pope
“Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools,
because they have to say something.” –Plato
“Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity, a greater.”
–William Hazlitt
*Repetition Techniques:
1. anadiplosis: the repetition of a prominent (usually the final) word of a phrase, clause, line, or stanza at the beginning of the
next.
Ex: “Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her
know,/Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain.”
–Phillip Syndey
“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to
suffering.” –Yoda
2.
anaphora: the repetition of the same word or expression at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or lines
for rhetorical or poetic effect.
Ex: “To think on death it is a misery,/ To think on life it is a vanity,/ To think on the world verily it is,/ To think
that here man hath no perfect bliss.” –Henry Peacham
3.
epanalepsis: repetition, placed at the end of the sentence, line, clause, or phrase of the word or words at the beginning of the
same sentence, line, clause, or phrase.
Ex: “Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more.” –John Milton
4.
epistrophe: the repetition of the same word or groups of words at the ends of successive clauses or phrases.
Ex: “When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child.” –1 Corinthians 13:11
5.
polysyndeton: the repetition of conjunctions within a sentence for special emphasis.
Ex: “Football still demands those attributes of courage and stamina and coordinated efficiency…” –Vince Lombardi
*Balance and Contrast (or Reversal)
1. antimetabole: a sentence strategy in which the arrangement of ideas in the second phrase or clause is a reversal of the first
(using the same words) (a-b-b-a)
Ex: “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” –John F. Kennedy
2. antithesis: a contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction (a-b-a-b)
Ex: “I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” –Matthew 5:17
“To err is human; to forgive, divine.” –Alexander Pope
*Parallel Structure
1. parallelism: a similarity in the way parts of a sentence or sentences are put together (grammatical or structural)
Ex: “Be one of the few, the proud, the Marines.”– United States Marine Corps
“The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by way,
disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage.” –John F. Kennedy