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2019 Midyear Exam Review—English 4 Dr. Humble

Format: Two essays (35 minutes each) and 130 objective questions.

Essay 1 is on ​Arms and the Man​, and you will have a choice of the two options given below. For
your second essay, you must write thematically about two or three of these works: ​Beowulf,
Hamlet, Fahrenheit 451.​ For these four works review characters, plot, topics, settings, and
themes.

Be sure that your essays subordinate plot summary to analytical thinking. That is, you may need
to include concrete details but these details must be in service to more abstract thinking such as
characterization, the identification of themes, or thematic analysis (by which I mean how a theme
illuminates the work’s meaning). If you merely summarize the plot, you are writing a failing
response. ​Focus on themes and topics, that is, meaning, more than on plot summary. I cannot
stress that enough. .

Essay 1. ​Arms and the Man

1. Defend, challenge, or qualify (defend ​and​ challenge) this proposition:

a. Louka is the main character of this play

b. Raina is the main character of this play

Suggestion: You may wish to eliminate certain people from contention. You may also want to
consider considering past, present, and future. You are analyzing a character (dealing with
qualities, traits, transformations [changes], and motivations), and you are thinking thematically.
Think about these literary terms about characterization, though you may not need to use them:
flat v. round; static v. dynamic.

2. What view of war does this play suggest (or argue for)? Are you comfortable using terms
like irony, romantic, idealistic, realistic, pragmatic, practical, disillusion, complexity, satire, and
growth?

Essay 2. Possible topics for the second essay: heroism, death, irony, comparison of characters
(major or minor). Works that can be used on this question: ​Fahrenheit 45, Beowulf, Hamlet. ​You
may not use ​Arms and the Man ​for this question.
Note about essays:​ Think about the four major works we have read thematically: what are the
themes and topics of these works? The essays count a lot so being thoughtful about the essays
will show the most learning and thus gain the most points.

These major works will be covered on our mid-year examination: ​Fahrenheit 45, Beowulf,
Hamlet, Arms and the Man. ​For each work, I shall provide a bank of answers that are lettered
(e.g., A.-G.) As usual, questions need not be chronological and you need not expect a 1:1
correspondence between columns (of prompts and answers). You will be asked to identify the
following for each work:

· Speakers of quotations

· Audiences of quotations

· Referents of quotations (that is, the underlined noun or pronoun)

· Character identification

· Characters within works

· Plots within works

· Themes ​or topics​ within works

Questions about sonnets

· Lines (14)

· Two major types: Italian and English

· Distinguishing between two types of English sonnets by rhyme scheme: Spencerian and
Shakespearean.
 When I give you two sonnets, one by Spencer and one by Shakespeare, identify the
author:

Spencer abab bcbc cdcd ee

Shakespeare abab cdcd efef gg

· ​Defining and identifying a ​volta​ (e.g., ​but, yet, not, then​). A volta is a turn from one part of
a sonnet to another: that is, it might signal a turn from the octave (first eight lines) to the sestet
OR from the first three quatrains to the rhyming couplet. The second part (sestet or couplet)
might negate the previous part, or elaborate on it, or quality it. The volta, or turn, may signal an
inversion.

· Defining and identifying enjambment

Vocabulary: 11 words from ​Arms and the Man

Sentence correctness. Be able to identify sentences that are correct or incorrect (run-on,
including comma splice, and fragment).

Know the chronological order of the three eras of British Literary History: Old English, Middle
English, and Modern English.