Excerpt from Chapter IV of Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
1. Use the passage to answer the question.
Which quote shows how the author uses archetypal meanings to help characterize
Mattie?
A.
"She stood just as Zeena had stood, a lifted lamp in her hand, against the black
background of the kitchen."
B.
"They drew their seats up to the table, and the cat, unbidden, jumped between them into
Zeena's empty chair."
C.
"She feigned great interest. 'Is that so? Do you suppose it'll interfere with Zeena's
getting back?'”
D.
"Mattie, in an instant, had sprung from her chair and was down on her knees by the
fragments."
E.
". . . through her hair she had run a streak of crimson ribbon. This tribute to the unusual
transformed and glorified her."
2. Use the passage to answer the question.
Which quote from the passage has the most symbolic significance to the story?
A.
"A bright fire glowed in the stove and the cat lay stretched before it, watching the table
with a drowsy eye."
B.
"And after a pause he felt it right to add: 'I suppose he got Zeena over to the Flats all
right?'”
C.
"Ethan was suffocated with the sense of well-being."
D.
"They drew their seats up to the table, and the cat, unbidden, jumped between them into
Zeena's empty chair."
E.
"The case was so serious that it called forth all of Ethan's latent resolution."
3. Use the passage to answer the question.
Which statement best describes the character of Ethan in this passage?
A.
He is unhappy to be left for the evening with Mattie and misses his wife.
B.
He does not want to be reminded of his wife so that he can enjoy his evening with
Mattie.
C.
He is upset his wife's favorite dish got broken and is angry with Mattie for using it.
D.
He does not know how to make small talk with Mattie and wishes to be alone.
E.
He is worried his wife will be unable to return home because of snow drifts on the Flats.
4. Use the passage to answer the question.
Which excerpt from the passage helps demonstrate the struggle between social
constraint and personal desire?
A.
"She set the lamp on the table, and he saw that it was carefully laid for supper, with
fresh dough-nuts, stewed blueberries and his favourite pickles in a dish of gay red
glass."
B.
"The name threw a chill between them, and they stood a moment looking sideways at
each other before Mattie said with a shy laugh. 'I guess it's about time for supper.'”
C.
"At last, after casting about for an effective opening, he took a long gulp of tea, cleared
his throat, and said: 'Looks as if there'd be more snow.’"
D.
"The cat, unnoticed, had crept up on muffled paws from Zeena's seat to the table, and
was stealthily elongating its body in the direction of the milk-jug . . ."
E.
“'Well, she'll have to say it to the cat, any way!' he rejoined with a laugh, kneeling down
at Mattie's side to scrape up the swimming pickles."
5. Use the passage to answer the question.
Which of the following quotes is an example of characterization that helps develop the
theme?
A.
“Silence answered; but in a minute or two he caught a sound on the stairs and saw a
line of light about the door-frame, as he had seen it the night before.”
B.
"This tribute to the unusual transformed and glorified her. She seemed to Ethan taller,
fuller, more womanly in shape and motion.”
C.
"They drew their seats up to the table, and the cat, unbidden, jumped between them into
Zeena's empty chair."
D.
"Mattie, in an instant, had sprung from her chair and was down on her knees by the
fragments."
E.
"Well, she'll have to say it to the cat, any way!” he rejoined with a laugh, kneeling down
at Mattie's side to scrape up the swimming pickles."
6. Use the passage to answer the question.
In the first two paragraphs of this passage, the character of Zeena is best described as
a
A.
round character.
B.
dynamic character.
C.
protagonist.
D.
stereotype.
E.
foil.
7. Use the passage to answer the question.
Write one paragraph in which you identify the symbolism used in the passage and
explain how the symbolism relates to an important theme of the passage. Use textual
evidence to support your answer.
Excerpt from Chapter IV of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Dafoe
Use the passage to answer the question.
8. What is the point of view of this passage?
A.
first-person
B.
second-person limited
C.
second-person omniscient
D.
third-person limited
E.
third-person omniscient
9. Use the passage to answer the question.
Robinson Crusoe is best described as which type of archetypal character?
A.
the mentor
B.
the scapegoat
C.
the trickster
D.
the hero
E.
the devil
10. Use the passage to answer the question.
Which statement best explains the effect of the point of view on the narration
of Robinson Crusoe?
A.
The point of view allows the author to give the reader a "god's-eye view" of the events in
the novel.
B.
The point of view allows the author to narrate events that take place without the main
character being present.
C.
The point of view allows the impartial narrator to stand outside the action of the novel.
D.
The point of view creates a detached, formal, objective tone that readers know is factbased.
E.
The point of view creates a conversational, informal style as the narrator tells his own
story.
11. Use the passage to answer the question.
Which detail from the text best supports the claim that Robinson Crusoe survives on the
island through hard work and determination?
A.
"I have already described my habitation, which was a tent under the side of a rock,
surrounded with a strong pale of posts and cables . . ."
B.
"But I must observe, too, that at first this was a confused heap of goods, which, as they
lay in no order, so they took up all my place;"
C.
"I had never handled a tool in my life; and yet, in time, by labour, application, and
contrivance, I found at last that I wanted nothing but I could have made it, especially if I
had had tools."
D.
"And now it was that I began to keep a journal of every day’s employment; for, indeed,
at first I was in too much hurry, and not only hurry as to labour, but in too much
discomposure of mind;"
E.
"After I had got to shore, and escaped drowning, instead of being thankful to God for my
deliverance, having first vomited, with the great quantity of salt water which had got into
my stomach, and recovering myself a little, I ran about the shore wringing my hands . .
."
12. Use the passage to answer the question.
Which of the following offers an analysis rather than a summary of the passage?
A.
Robinson Crusoe’s shelter was built using a tent under the side of a rock to form a cave.
B.
Robinson Crusoe kept a journal on the island to chronicle his adventures until he ran
out of ink.
C.
Robinson Crusoe's practical approach to life on the island is what enabled him to
survive being shipwrecked.
D.
Robinson Crusoe used wood from his ship as well as wood he carved from trees to
build the furniture he needed.
E.
Robinson Crusoe despaired when he first washed ashore on the island and ran around
shouting "I am undone."
13. Use the passage to answer the question.
Which word best describes the overall tone of this passage?
A.
pragmatic
B.
despairing
C.
ambivalent
D.
whimsical
E.
mocking
14. Use the passage to answer the question.
Describe how Dafoe's style shapes Robinson Crusoe, including how he uses diction
and syntax to create an authentic, believable in character in Robinson Crusoe. Your
answer should be one paragraph in length. Use textual evidence to support your
answer.
Excerpt from Chapter XXVI of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
15. Use the passage to answer the question.
The passage includes the following lines: "What a hot and strong grasp he had! and
how like quarried marble was his pale, firm, massive front at this moment!" These lines
can best be described as
A.
personification.
B.
metaphor.
C.
irony.
D.
simile.
E.
alliteration.
16. Use the passage to answer the question.
All of the following examples show how the author uses figurative language and
imagery to characterize Mr. Rochester as dangerous in this passage EXCEPT which?
A.
“Mr. Rochester moved slightly, as if an earthquake had rolled under his feet: taking a
firmer footing, and not turning his head or eyes, he said, ‘Proceed.’"
B.
" . . . and how like quarried marble was his pale, firm, massive front at this moment!
How his eye shone, still watchful, and yet wild beneath!"
C.
"Mr. Rochester turned and glared at him. His eye, as I have often said, was a black eye:
it had now a tawny, nay, a bloody light in its gloom;"
D.
"Mr. Rochester, on hearing the name, set his teeth; he experienced, too, a sort of strong
convulsive quiver; near to him as I was, I felt the spasmodic movement of fury or
despair run through his frame."
E.
". . . and his face flushed . . . and he stirred, lifted his strong arm—he could have struck
Mason, dashed him on the church-floor, shocked by ruthless blow the breath from his
body"
17. Use the passage to answer the question.
In this passage, the author primarily uses dialogue
A.
to clarify the setting.
B.
to reinforce the theme.
C.
to reveal the characters' inner thoughts.
D.
to set the mood of the passage.
E.
to develop the conflict.
18. Use the passage to answer the question.
Which of the following quotes from the passage is an example of characterization that
develops the theme of Jane’s increasing independence?
A.
"; but I was collected, and in no danger of swooning."
B.
" I looked at Mr. Rochester: I made him look at me.”
C.
". . . near to him as I was, I felt the spasmodic movement of fury or despair run through
his frame."
D.
". . . he only twined my waist with his arm and riveted me to his side."
E.
" His eye, as I have often said, was a black eye:"
19. Use the passage to answer the question.
The passage includes the following lines: "When is the pause after that sentence ever
broken by reply? Not, perhaps, once in a hundred years." These lines are best
described as
A.
stream of consciousness.
B.
flashback.
C.
foreshadowing.
D.
irony.
E.
in media res.
20. Use the passage to answer the question.
Which statement best explains the effect of the narration on the passage?
A.
The narration allows the reader to understand Jane Eyre's mental anguish by not only
describing her thoughts and feelings but by describing the thoughts and feelings of
those around her.
B.
The narration builds suspense because the reader only knows what Jane knows and
has to wait until the truth is finally revealed by Mason.
C.
The narration allows the author to explain the events in the passage to the reader, even
though the characters do not fully understand the events.
D.
The narration allows the reader to know Rochester's thoughts as well as Jane's
thoughts, which reveals the torment he is in knowing he will be unable to marry Jane.
E.
The narration allows Bronte to describe action to the reader that takes place when the
main character is not present in the scene, which gives the reader a fuller
understanding of the plot.
21. Use the passage to answer the question.
Shortly after this passage, it is revealed that Rochester's secret wife is the "madwoman
in the attic" at Thornfield, who had tried to set his bedroom on fire and had stabbed
Mason earlier in the novel. Write one paragraph that discusses how the characters and
their actions in Jane Eyre reflect the novel's historical, social, and cultural context. Use
textual evidence to support your answer.
Excerpt from Chapter IV of Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Silence answered; but in a minute or two he caught a sound on the stairs and saw a
line of light about the door-frame, as he had seen it the night before. So strange was the
precision with which the incidents of the previous evening were repeating themselves
that he half expected, when he heard the key turn, to see his wife before him on the
threshold; but the door opened, and Mattie faced him.
She stood just as Zeena had stood, a lifted lamp in her hand, against the black
background of the kitchen. She held the light at the same level, and it drew out with the
same distinctness her slim young throat and the brown wrist no bigger than a child's.
Then, striking upward, it threw a lustrous fleck on her lips, edged her eyes with velvet
shade, and laid a milky whiteness above the black curve of her brows.
She wore her usual dress of darkish stuff, and there was no bow at her neck; but
through her hair she had run a streak of crimson ribbon. This tribute to the unusual
transformed and glorified her. She seemed to Ethan taller, fuller, more womanly in
shape and motion. She stood aside, smiling silently, while he entered, and then moved
away from him with something soft and flowing in her gait. She set the lamp on the
table, and he saw that it was carefully laid for supper, with fresh dough-nuts, stewed
blueberries and his favourite pickles in a dish of gay red glass. A bright fire glowed in
the stove and the cat lay stretched before it, watching the table with a drowsy eye.
Ethan was suffocated with the sense of well-being. He went out into the passage to
hang up his coat and pull off his wet boots. When he came back Mattie had set the
teapot on the table and the cat was rubbing itself persuasively against her ankles.
. . . And after a pause he felt it right to add: “I suppose he got Zeena over to the Flats
all right?”
5
“Oh, yes; in plenty of time.”
The name threw a chill between them, and they stood a moment looking sideways at
each other before Mattie said with a shy laugh. “I guess it's about time for supper.”
They drew their seats up to the table, and the cat, unbidden, jumped between them into
Zeena's empty chair. “Oh, Puss!” said Mattie, and they laughed again.
Ethan, a moment earlier, had felt himself on the brink of eloquence; but the mention of
Zeena had paralysed him. Mattie seemed to feel the contagion of his embarrassment,
and sat with downcast lids, sipping her tea, while he feigned an insatiable appetite for
dough-nuts and sweet pickles. At last, after casting about for an effective opening, he
took a long gulp of tea, cleared his throat, and said: “Looks as if there'd be more snow.”
She feigned great interest. “Is that so? Do you suppose it'll interfere with Zeena's
getting back?” She flushed red as the question escaped her, and hastily set down the
cup she was lifting.
10
Ethan reached over for another helping of pickles. “You never can tell, this time of year,
it drifts so bad on the Flats.” The name had benumbed him again, and once more he felt
as if Zeena were in the room between them.
“Oh, Puss, you're too greedy!” Mattie cried.
The cat, unnoticed, had crept up on muffled paws from Zeena's seat to the table, and
was stealthily elongating its body in the direction of the milk-jug, which stood between
Ethan and Mattie. The two leaned forward at the same moment and their hands met on
the handle of the jug. Mattie's hand was underneath, and Ethan kept his clasped on it
a moment longer than was necessary. The cat, profiting by this unusual demonstration,
tried to effect an unnoticed retreat, and in doing so backed into the pickle-dish, which
fell to the floor with a crash.
Mattie, in an instant, had sprung from her chair and was down on her knees by the
fragments.
15
“Oh, Ethan, Ethan—it's all to pieces! What will Zeena say?”
But this time his courage was up. “Well, she'll have to say it to the cat, any way!” he
rejoined with a laugh, kneeling down at Mattie's side to scrape up the swimming pickles.
She lifted stricken eyes to him. “Yes, but, you see, she never meant it should be used,
not even when there was company; and I had to get up on the step-ladder to reach it
down from the top shelf of the china-closet, where she keeps it with all her best things,
and of course she'll want to know why I did it—”
The case was so serious that it called forth all of Ethan's latent resolution.
“She needn't know anything about it if you keep quiet. I'll get another just like it tomorrow. Where did it come from? I'll go to Shadd's Falls for it if I have to!”
Excerpt from Chapter IV of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Dafoe
Having now brought my mind a little to relish my condition, and given over looking out to
sea, to see if I could spy a ship—I say, giving over these things, I began to apply myself
to arrange my way of living, and to make things as easy to me as I could.
I have already described my habitation, which was a tent under the side of a rock,
surrounded with a strong pale of posts and cables: but I might now rather call it a wall,
for I raised a kind of wall up against it of turfs, about two feet thick on the outside; and
after some time (I think it was a year and a half) I raised rafters from it, leaning to the
rock, and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees, and such things as I could get, to
keep out the rain; which I found at some times of the year very violent.
I have already observed how I brought all my goods into this pale, and into the cave
which I had made behind me. But I must observe, too, that at first this was a confused
heap of goods, which, as they lay in no order, so they took up all my place; I had no
room to turn myself: so I set myself to enlarge my cave, and work farther into the earth;
for it was a loose sandy rock, which yielded easily to the labour I bestowed on it:
and so when I found I was pretty safe as to beasts of prey, I worked sideways, to the
right hand, into the rock; and then, turning to the again, worked quite out, and made me
a door to come out on the outside of my pale or fortification. This gave me not only
egress and regress, as it was a back way to my tent and to my storehouse, but gave me
room to store my goods.
And now I began to apply myself to make such necessary things as I found I most
wanted, particularly a chair and a table; for without these I was not able to enjoy the few
comforts I had in the world; I could not write or eat, or do several things, with so much
pleasure without a table: so I went to work. And here I must needs observe, that as
reason is the substance and origin of the mathematics, so by stating and
squaring everything by reason, and by making the most rational judgment of
things, every man may be, in time, master of every mechanic art. I had never handled a
tool in my life; and yet, in time, by labour, application, and contrivance, I found at last
that I wanted nothing but I could have made it, especially if I had had tools. However, I
made abundance of things, even without tools; and some with no more tools than an
adze and a hatchet, which perhaps were never made that way before, and that
with infinite labour. For example, if I wanted a board, I had no other way but to cut down
a tree, set it on an edge before me, and hew it flat on either side with my axe, till I
brought it to be thin as a plank, and then dub it smooth with my adze. It is true, by this
method I could make but one board out of a whole tree; but this I had no remedy for
but patience, any more than I had for the prodigious deal of time and labour which it
took me up to make a plank or board: but my time or labour was little worth, and so it
was as well employed one way as another.
However, I made me a table and a chair, as I observed above, in the first place; and
this I did out of the short pieces of boards that I brought on my raft from the ship. But
when I had wrought out some boards as above, I made large shelves, of the breadth of
a foot and a half, one over another all along one side of my cave, to lay all my tools,
nails and ironwork on; and, in a word, to separate everything at large into their places,
5
that I might come easily at them. I knocked pieces into the wall of the rock to hang my
guns and all things that would hang up; so that, had my cave been to be seen, it looked
like a general magazine of all necessary things; and had everything so ready at my
hand, that it was a great pleasure to me to see all my goods in such order, and
especially to find my stock of all necessaries so great.
And now it was that I began to keep a journal of every day’s employment; for, indeed,
at first I was in too much hurry, and not only hurry as to labour, but in too much
discomposure of mind; and my journal would have been full of many dull things; for
example, I must have said thus: “30th.—After I had got to shore, and escaped drowning,
instead of being thankful to God for my deliverance, having first vomited, with the
great quantity of salt water which had got into my stomach, and recovering myself a
little, I ran about the shore wringing my hands and beating my head and face,
exclaiming at my misery, and crying out, ‘I was undone, undone!’ till, tired and faint, I
was forced to lie down on the ground to repose, but durst not sleep for fear of being
devoured.”
Some days after this, and after I had been on board the ship, and got all that I could out
of her, yet I could not forbear getting up to the top of a little mountain and looking out to
sea, in hopes of seeing a ship; then fancy at a vast distance I spied a sail, please myself
with the hopes of it, and then after looking steadily, till I was almost blind, lose it quite,
and sit down and weep like a child, and thus increase my misery by my folly.
But having gotten over these things in some measure, and having settled my
household staff and habitation, made me a table and a chair, and all as handsome
about me as I could, I began to keep my journal; of which I shall here give you the copy
(though in it will be told all these particulars over again) as long as it lasted; for having
no more ink, I was forced to leave it off.
Excerpt from Chapter XXVI of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
"I require and charge you both (as ye will answer at the dreadful day of judgment, when
the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed), that if either of you know any impediment
why ye may not lawfully be joined together in matrimony, ye do now confess it; for be ye
well assured that so many as are coupled together otherwise than God's Word doth
allow, are not joined together by God, neither is their matrimony lawful."
He paused, as the custom is. When is the pause after that sentence ever broken by
reply? Not, perhaps, once in a hundred years. And the clergyman, who had not lifted his
eyes from his book, and had held his breath but for a moment, was proceeding: his
hand was already stretched towards Mr. Rochester, as his lips unclosed to ask, "Wilt
thou have this woman for thy wedded wife?"—when a distinct and near voice said—
"The marriage cannot go on: I declare the existence of an impediment."
The clergyman looked up at the speaker and stood mute; the clerk did the same; Mr.
Rochester moved slightly, as if an earthquake had rolled under his feet: taking a firmer
footing, and not turning his head or eyes, he said, "Proceed."
Profound silence fell when he had uttered that word, with deep but
low intonation. Presently Mr. Wood said—
5
"I cannot proceed without some investigation into what has been asserted, and
evidence of its truth or falsehood."
"The ceremony is quite broken off," subjoined the voice behind us. "I am in a condition
to prove my allegation: an insuperable impediment to this marriage exists."
Mr. Rochester heard, but heeded not: he stood stubborn and rigid, making no
movement but to possess himself of my hand. What a hot and strong grasp he had! and
how like quarried marble was his pale, firm, massive front at this moment! How his eye
shone, still watchful, and yet wild beneath!
Mr. Wood seemed at a loss. "What is the nature of the impediment?"
he asked. "Perhaps it may be got over—explained away?"
10
"Hardly," was the answer. "I have called it insuperable, and I speak advisedly."
The speaker came forward and leaned on the rails. He continued, uttering each word
distinctly, calmly, steadily, but not loudly—
"It simply consists in the existence of a previous marriage. Mr. Rochester has a wife
now living."
My nerves vibrated to those low-spoken words as they had never vibrated to thunder—
my blood felt their subtle violence as it had never felt frost or fire; but I was collected,
and in no danger of swooning. I looked at Mr. Rochester: I made him look at me. His
whole face was colourless rock: his eye was both spark and flint. He disavowed
nothing: he seemed as if he would defy all things. Without speaking, without smiling,
without seeming to recognise in me a human being, he only twined my waist with his
arm and riveted me to his side.
"Who are you?" he asked of the intruder.
15
"My name is Briggs, a solicitor of --- Street, London."
"And you would thrust on me a wife?"
"I would remind you of your lady's existence, sir, which the law recognises, if you do
not."
"Favour me with an account of her—with her name, her parentage, her place of
abode."
"Certainly." Mr. Briggs calmly took a paper from his pocket, and read out in a sort of
official, nasal voice:—
"'I affirm and can prove that on the 20th of October A.D. --- (a date of fifteen years
back), Edward Fairfax Rochester, of Thornfield Hall, in the county of ---, and
of Ferndean Manor, in ---shire, England, was married to my sister,
Bertha Antoinetta Mason, daughter of Jonas Mason, merchant, and of Antoinetta his
wife, a Creole, at --- church, Spanish Town, Jamaica. The record of the marriage will be
found in the register of that church—a copy of it is now in my possession. Signed,
Richard Mason.'"
20
"That—if a genuine document—may prove I have been married, but it does not prove
that the woman mentioned therein as my wife is still living."
"She was living three months ago," returned the lawyer.
"How do you know?"
"I have a witness to the fact, whose testimony even you, sir, will scarcely controvert."
25
"Produce him—or go to hell."
"I will produce him first—he is on the spot. Mr. Mason, have the goodness to step
forward."
Mr. Rochester, on hearing the name, set his teeth; he experienced, too, a sort of strong
convulsive quiver; near to him as I was, I felt the spasmodic movement of fury or
despair run through his frame. The second stranger, who had hitherto lingered in the
background, now drew near; a pale face looked over the solicitor's shoulder—yes, it
was Mason himself. Mr. Rochester turned and glared at him. His eye, as I have often
said, was a black eye: it had now a tawny, nay, a bloody light in its gloom; and his face
flushed—olive cheek and hueless forehead received a glow as from spreading,
ascending heart-fire: and he stirred, lifted his strong arm—he could have struck Mason,
dashed him on the church-floor, shocked by ruthless blow the breath from his body—
but Mason shrank away, and cried faintly, "Good God!" Contempt fell cool on Mr.
Rochester—his passion died as if a blight had shrivelled it up: he only asked—"What
have you to say?"
An inaudible reply escaped Mason's white lips.
"The devil is in it if you cannot answer distinctly. I again demand, what have you to
say?"
"Sir—sir," interrupted the clergyman, "do not forget you are in a sacred place." Then
addressing Mason, he inquired gently, "Are you aware, sir, whether or not this
gentleman's wife is still living?"
30
"Courage," urged the lawyer,—"speak out."
"She is now living at Thornfield Hall," said Mason, in more articulate tones: "I saw her
there last April. I am her brother."
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