AP English Literature Summer Fun 2010 For those dog days of summer when you are suffering from ennui (look it up) and are seeking to ameliorate rather than to exacerbate those feelings, I am offering a solution: Read William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Please note that I said READ THE WORK, NOT SPARK.NOTES, CLIFF NOTES, OR VIEW A MOVIE WITH THE SAME TITLE. Just as running and lifting will strengthen you physically, so reading will strengthen you mentally and better prepare you for AP, as well as for college(ask some of your college friends how much reading is required in college). But I digress. After READING the play, complete the following: 1. Write a 2-3 page typed composition using the attached prompt from th3 2007 AP Exam (100 points). 2. Research the "CURSE" associated with Macbeth; summarize the gist of the alleged cursed incidents and discuss the plausibility of the curse as it might apply to today’s audiences.(1-2 pages typed) 50 points. Just to make the assignment more enjoyable (how can it get any better?) these two papers will constitute your first composition grades - I’ll stop before you become terminally ebullient. Read the attached poem and prose passage; answer the accompanying questions. The poem is challenging but do your best - work by yourself- you only get stronger by lifting weights yourself (don’t you just love sports analogies!)100 points
N.B. These assignments are due on the first day of class in August, whether you are in class or not. Late assignments will receive a "C" at best. Good luck, enjoy your summer, and do your best on each assignment. Above all, keep smiling- THE ADVENTURE HAS BEGUN and only SENIORS are invited. See you in August.
Question 3 (Suggested time--40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.)
In many works of literature, past events can affect, positively or negatively, the present actions, attitudes, or values of a character. Choose a novel or play in which a charactdr must contend with some aspect of the past, either personal or societal. Then write an essay in which you show how the character’s relationship to the past contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. You may choose a work from the list below or ~nother appropriate novel or play of similar literary merit. Do not merely summarize the plot. tdS’F~ /4~e b~’-~¢/’-Long Day’s Journey into Night Lord Jim Middlemarch Moby-Dick The Moor’s Last Sigh . Mrs. Dalloway Native Speaker Obasan A Passage to lndia Persuasion The Piano Lesson Ragtime A Separate Peace A Streetcar Named Desire The Tempest Tess of the D’ Urbervilles Their Eyes Were Watching God Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Wuthering Heights
Absalom, Absalom.t All the King’s Men The American Atonement
The Awakening Beloved The Blind Assassin The Bonesegter’s Daughter The Cherry Orchard Cry, the Beloved Country Death of a Salesman Au Enemy of the People Ethan Frome Fifth Business The Fixer Great Expectations The Great Gatsb) The House of Mirth Jane Eyre The Kite Runner
STOP END OF EXAM
THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS APPLY TO THE COVERS OF THE SECTION II BOOKLET, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION AS REQUESTED ON THE FRONT _AND BACK COVERS OF THE SECTION II BOOKLET. CHECK TO SEE THAT YOUR AP NUMBER LABEL APPEARS IN THE BOX(ES) ON THE COVER(S). MAKE SURE YOU HAVE USED THE SAME SET OF AP NUMBER LABELS ON AL~L AP EXAMS YOU HAVE TAKEN THIS YEAR,
Sample Examination
6
u~ions 13-30: Read the following poem carefully bef6re you choose your answers. The Shield of Achilles
(5)
She looked over his shoulder " For vines and olive trees, Marble well-governed cities, And ships upon untamed seas. But there on the shining metal His hands had put instead An artificial wilderness And a sky like lead.
A plain without a feature, bare and brown, (10) No blade of grass, no sign of neighborhood, Nothing to eat and nowhere to sit down, Yet, congregated on its blankness, stood An unintelligible multitude, A million eyes, a million boots in line, (15) Without expression, waiting for a sign. Out of the air a voice without a face Proved by statistics that some cause was just In tones zs dry and level as the place: No one was cheered and nothing was discussed; (20) Column by column in a cloud of dust They m~ched away enduring a belief Whose logic brought them, somewhere else, to grief.
(25)
(30)
She looked over his shoulder For ritual pieties, White flower-garlanded heifers, Libation and sacrifice. But there on the shining metal Where the altar should have been, She saw by his flickering forge-light Quite another scene.
Barbed wire enclosed an arbitrary spot Where bored officials lounged (one cracked a joke) And sentries sweated, for the day was hot: A crowd of ordinary decent folk (35) Watched from without and neither moved nor spoke As three pale figures were led forth and bound To three posts driven upright in the ground.
The mass and majesty of this world, all That carries weight and always weighs the same, ¯ (40) Lay in the hands of others; they were small And could not hope for help and no help came: What their foes liked to do was done, their shame Was all the worst could wish; they lost their pride And died as men before their bodies died.
(45)
(5O)
She looked over his shoulder For athletes at their games, Men and women in a dance Moving their sweet limbs Quick, quick to music, But there on the shining shield His hands had set no dancing-floor But a weed-choked field,.
A ragged urchin, ainaless and alone, Loitered about that vacancy; a bird Flew up to safety from his welt-aimed stone: (55) That girls are raped, that two boys knife a third, Were axioms to him, who’d never heard Of any world where promises were kept Or one could weep beeanse another wept.
(60)
(65)
The thin-lipped armorer, Hephaestos, hobbled away; Thetis of the shining breasts Cried out in dismay At what the god had wrought To please her son, the strong Iron-hearted man-slaying Achilles Who would not live long. --W.H. Auden
From W.H. AUDEN: COLLECTED POEMS by W.H. Audcn, edited by Edward Mendelson. Copyright o 1952 by W.H. Auden Reprinted by permission of Random House,
Sample Examination I 13.
All of the following contribute to the structural unity of the poem EXCEPT
18.
(A) ignorant (B) undiscerning (C) truculent (D) mumbling (E) camouflaged
(A) a conflict between two perspectives (B) an intricate pattern of stanza and rhyme (C) a choral-like repetition (D) an ineffable mood of hope (E) a tableaux of militancy and violence 19. 14.
The "She" in the poem refers to Achilles’
(A) courtesan (B) mother (C). wife (D) daughter (E) priestess 15.
The opening stanza of the poem (lines 1-8) intends to foreshadow Thetis’
All of the following comprise images Thetis expects to see on the shield EXCEPT
20.
(A) fearful anticipation (B) ardent patriotism (C) nervous impatience (D) noble altruism (E) bleak resignation
Lines 16-18, "Out of the air a voice without a face/ Proved by statistics that some cause was just / In tones as dry and level as the placer" primarily ~atirize the (A) errant calculations of mathematicians (B) specious justificationof war (C) clear boredom of political rhetoric (D) shameless conceit of world leaders (E) arid ambience of the setting
21.
(A) a religious procession (B) a pastoral setting (C) a depiction of warfare and torture (D) a flurry of athletic and aesthetic activity (E) a panegyric to Greek politics and colonization 17. The attitude of the assembled "multitude" in stanzas two and three (lines 9-22) is clearly one of
In the third stanza of the poem (lines 16-22), the speaker is most concerned with what aspect of the multitude? (A) its daunting size (B) its eerie silence (C) its grim destination (D) its grave mien (E) its blind allegiance
(A) interference in Achilles’ affairs (B) admiration for Hellenistic culture (C) pride in Achilles’ military accomplishments (D) distress over the content of Achilles’ shield (E) satisfactionwith Hephaestus’ artistry 16.
The BEST equivalent for the word "unintelligible" (line 13) is
In the fifth and sixth stanzas of the poem (lines 3144), the speaker directly censures the (A) frequent apathy of good people (B) incompetence of government officials (C) overzealousness of the sentries (D) cravenness of the accused (E) non-intervention of the Divine
22.
The word "arbitrary" as used in line 31 intimates the ~A) squalor of the confinement (B) "0niversality of forceful oppression (C) boredom of the sentries’ assigmaaent (D) remoteness of the enclosure (E) unlikelihood of the prisoners’ escape
Sample Examination I The primary contrast suggested by the sixth stav_za of the poem (lines 38-44) is between
27.
28.
(A) that the captors have usurped the right to pass judgment (B) that the captors take pleasure in their prisoners’ suffering (C) that the captives are weak and outnumbered (D) that the captives straggle valiantly before dying (E) that the captives know their situation is hopeless 25.
The phrase, "they lost their pride / And died as men before their bodies died" (lines 4344), BEST exemplifies which of the following literary techniques? (A) hyperbole (B) metaphor (C) paradox (D) understatement (E) allusion
26.
The diction in the opening lines of the eighth stanza (lines 53-54) illustrates the (A) wretched plight of the poor (B) annihilating nature of warfare (C) chronic indolence of the young (D) insuperable power of nature (E) pristine attractiveness of the setting
Lines 56-59, "That girls are raped...because another wept," reveal the urchin’s
(A) ignorance (B) cravenness (C) irresponsibility (D) callousness (E) dullness
(A) power and helplessness 03) hope and despair (C) freedom and captivity (D) life and death (E) belief and atheism The sixth stanza (lines 38-44) suggests all of the following EXCEPT
9
Which of the following words is used" ironically in the passage?
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) 29.
"feature" (line 9) "logic" (li~e 22) "sacrifice" (line 26) "limbs" (line 48) "vacancy" (line 54)
Which of the following is NOT alluded to in the course of Auden’s poem? " (A) the Crucifixion of Jesus (B) the siege of Troy (C) totalitarianism (D) the contemporary wasteland (E) the sufferings of Job
30.
Ultimately, when one considers the content of Achilles’ shield, the greatest irony in the poem is (A) Thetis’ unreasonable expecta~ons (B) Thetis’ emotional outburst (C) Hephaestos’ storied craftsmanship (D) Achilles’ heroic stature (E) Achilles’ own mortality
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Sample Examination IV Questions 16-27: Read the passage carefully before you choose your answers.
When he came up to the church on Sunday morning, tall and ample, grave and magnificent, his face fixed in a smile of friendliness, his morning coat bright in the sun, a Bible under his arm, Elmer (5) was exhilarated by the crowd faltering into the church. The street was filled with country buggies and a Ford or two. As he went round the back of the church, passing a knot at the door, they shouted cordially, "Good morning, Brother!" and "Fine (10) day, Reverend!" Cteo was waiting for him with the choir--Mrs. Kloof, the school-teacher, Mrs. Diebel, wife of the implement dealer, Ed Perkins, defiveryman for Mr. Benham, and Ray Fancett, butter-maker at (15) the creamery. Cleo held his hand and rejoiced, "What a wonderful crowd there is this morning[ I’m so glad!" Together they peeped through the parlor (20) door into the auditorium, and he almost put his arm about her firm waist....It would have seemed natural, very pleasant and right and sweet. When he marched out to the chancel, the church was full, a dozen standing. They all (25) breathed with admiration. (He learned later that the last pastor had had trouble with his false teeth and a fondness for whining). He led the singing. "Come on now[" he laughed. "You’ve got (30) to welcome your new preacher! The best way is to put a lot of lung-power into it and sing like the dickens! You can all make some kind of noise. Make a lot!" Hiinself he gave example, his deep voice (35) roiling out in hymns of which he had always been fond; "I Love to Tell the Story" and "My Faith Looks up to Thee." He prayed briefly---he was weary of prayers in which the priest fumblingly explained to (40) God that God really was God. This was, he said, his first day with the new flock. Let the Lord give him ways of showing them his love and his desire to serve them. Before his sermon he looked from brother (45) to brother. He loved them all that moment; they were his regiment, and he the colonel; his ship’s crew, and he the skipper; his patients, and he the loyal physician. He began slowly, his great voice
swelling to triumphant certainty as he talked. Voice, sureness, presence, training, power, (50) he had them all. Never had he so well liked his role; never had he acted so well; never had he’ known such sincerity of histrionic interest. He had solid doctrine for the older (55) stalwarts....For the young people he had plenty of anecdotes, and he was not afraid to make them laugh. While he did tell the gloomy incident of the boy who was drowned while fishing on Sunday, he (60) also gave them the humorous story of the lad who declared he wouldn’t go to school "because it said in the Twenty-third Psalm that the Lord made him lie down in green pastures, and he sure did prefer that to school!" For all of them but particularly for Cleo, (65) sitting at the organ, her hands clasped in her lap, her eyes loyal, he winged into poetry. To preach the good news of the gospel, ~th! That was not, as the wicked pretended, a weak, (70) saivefing, sanctimonious thing! It was the job for strong men and resolute women. For this, theMethodist roissinnaries had faced the ferocious lion and the treacherous fevers of the jungle, the poisonous cold of the Arctic, the parching desert (75) and the fields of battle. Were we to be less heroic than they? Here, now, in Banjo Crossing, there was no triumph of business so stirring, no despairing need of a sick friend so urgent, as the call to tell blinded and perishing sinners the (80) necessity of repentance. "Repentance---repentance-- -repentance---in the name of the Lord God!" His superb voice t~mpeted it, and in Cleo’s eyes were inspired tears. Beyond controversy, it was the best sermon (85) ever heard in Banjo Crossing. And they told him so as he cheerily shook hands with them at the door. "Enjoyed your discourse a lot, Reverend!" And Cleo came to him, her hands out, and (90) he almost kissed her. Excerpt from ELMER GANTRY copyright o 1927 by Sinclair Lewis and renewed 1955 by ~liehael Lewis, reprinted by
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Sample Examination 16, Upon first impression, the reverend depicted in the passage appears
21.
(A) immaculate attire (B) nervous anticipation (C) preference for short prayer (D) recitation of anecdotes (E) respect for missionaries
(A) humble (B) inarticulate (C) formal (D) reticent (E) inspirational 17,
A clgse reading of the passage reveals the reverand’s conflict to be a clash between
22.
In the passage the reverend’s talents are associated with those of a(n)
23.
The reader first questions the new reverend’s devotion when he
24.
25. Which of the following does NOT contribute directly to the reverend’s first-day success? (A) his resonant voice and rhetorical delivery (B) his awareness of audience and appropriate appeal (C) his cordial demeanor and spiritaal ebullience (D) the congregation’s nalvet~ and dislike for his predecessor (E) the congregation’s homogeneity and sparseness
All of the following phrases clearly manifest the reverend’s "histrionics" EXCEPT
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
(A) greets the arriving parishioners (B) peeps with Cleo through the parlor door (C) leads the congregation in song (D) prays but briefly in the pulpit (E) exhorts the assembly to repent 20.
The ~-everend’s sermon (lines 54-82) is marked by all of the following EXCEPT (A) repetition (B) parallelism (C) allusion (D) understatement (E) anecdotes
(A) salesman (B) actor (C) mechanic (D) doctor (E) farmer
19.
Which of the following does the reverend NOT include as part of his sermon (lines 54-82)?
¯(A) a me~ure of sound doctrine (B) a reference to a local tragedy (C) an account ef his schooling (D) a humorous tale of a mischievous lad (E) an appeal for contrition
(A) belie[ and atheism (B) temptation and piety (C) decorum and informality (D) enthusiasm and apathy (E) humility and conceit
18.
A conspicuous and revealing anomaly in the reverend’s behavior is his
"breathed with admiration" (line 25) "deep voice rolling" (lines 34-35) "swelling to triumphant cert~iinty" (line 49) "winged into poetry" (lind 67) "superb voice trumpeted" (line 83)
The phrase "knot at the door" (line 8) BEST exemplifies which of the following? (A) simile (B) analogy (C) hyperbole (D) paradox (E) allusion
Sample Examination 16.¸
Upon first impression, the reverend depicted in the passage appears
21.
A c 0so reading of the passage reveals the reverend’s conflict to be a clash between
22.
In the passage the reverand’s talents are associated with those of a(n)
23.
The reader first questions the new reverend’s devotion when he
24.
25. Which of the following does NOT contribute directly to the reverend’s first-day success? (A) his resonant voice and rhetorical delivery (B) his awareness of audience and appropriate appeal (C) his cordial demeanor and spiritual ebullience (D) the congregation’s naivete and dislike for his predecessor (E) the congregation’s homogeneity and sparseness
All of the following phrases clearly manifest the reverend’s "histrionics" EXCEPT (A) "breathed with admiration" (line 25) (B) "deep voice rolling" (lines 34-35) (C) "swelling to triumphant cert~iinty" (line 49) (D) "winged into poetry" (lin~ 67) (E) "superb voice trumpeted" (line 83)
(A) greets the arriving parishioners (B) peeps with Cleo through the parlor door (C) leads the congregation in song (D) prays but briefly in the pnlpit (E) exhorts the assembly to repent
20.
The .reverend’s sermon (lines 54-82) is marked by all of the following EXCEPT (A) ~repetition (B) parallelism (C) allusion (D) understatement (E) anecdotes
(A) salesman (B) actor (C) mechanic (D) doctor (E) farmer
19.
Which of the following does the reverend NOT include ~s p~t of his sermon (lines 54-82)?
¯(A) a measure of sound doctrine (B) a reference to a !oral tragedy (C) an account of his schooling (D) a humorous tale of a mischievous lad (E) an appeal for contrition
(A) belie~ and atheism (B) temptation and piety (C) decorum and informality (D) enthusiasm and apathy (E) humility and conceit
18.
A conspicuous and revealing anomaly in the reverend’s behavior is his (A) immaculate attire (B) nervous anticipation (C) preference for short prayer (D) recitation of anecdotes (E) respect for missionaries
(A) humble (B) inarticnlato (c) foruaal (D) reticent (E) inspirational 17.
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The phrase "knot at the door" (line 8) BEST exemplifies which of the following?
(A) simile (B) analogy (C) hyperbole (D) paradox (E) allusion
Sample Examination IV 26-
All of the following may be seen as examples of local color EXCEPT
(A) the horse-and-cmliages (B) the local tradesmen and citizens of the town (C) the sigging of hymns (D) the name of the town (E) the missionaries
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27. thoughts with his position, one finds the greatest irony to be his (A) carlying the Bible (B) choice of hymns (C) love for his flock (D) banter with young parishioners (E) plea for repentance
