Literary Elements
The way an author reveals information about a character
characterization
On the ELA regents all your answers should be written in
pen
What should you do to the texts as you read them?
annotate (highlight/mark up)
His personality is as dark as the night
Simile
The train car smelled of wet wool and stale tobacco, a stifling canopy that seemed to press the passengers deeper into their coats. Eleanor stared out the window, watching the skeletal silhouettes of upstate maples blur against the graying dusk. Beside her, her father’s fingers drummed a relentless, anxious rhythm against his leather briefcase—the same briefcase that had held their family’s future for the last forty-eight hours. He hadn’t spoken since Albany. Eleanor wanted to reach out, to place her hand over his trembling knuckles, but the heavy, unyielding silence in the car felt like a physical barrier she lacked the strength to break. Instead, she leaned her forehead against the cold glass, letting the vibrations of the tracks rattle through her teeth.
1. The description of the setting in lines 1 through 4 chiefly serves to A) foreshadow a conflict between Eleanor and her father B) establish a somber and oppressive atmosphere C) symbolize the family's financial security D) highlight Eleanor’s resentment of her surroundings
B
A message or life lesson the author attempts to communicate through their writing.
central idea
The number of sections on the ELA Regents Exam.
3
When you complete the regents you should
Check your answers
She is a monster at video games
metaphor
For decades, urban planners treated the presence of city trees as mere aesthetic window dressing—a pleasant, if costly, luxury. However, recent ecological data suggests that urban canopies are actually critical pieces of municipal infrastructure. In concrete-heavy environments, the "urban heat island" effect can raise city temperatures by up to 10 degrees compared to surrounding rural areas. Trees mitigate this not only by casting shade, but through evapotranspiration, a process wherein leaves release water vapor that cools the ambient air. To bulldoze a city grove is therefore not merely an aesthetic loss; it is the structural equivalent of dismantling a public cooling tower.
2. The author uses the comparison between a city grove and a "public cooling tower" to emphasize that urban trees A) require expensive mechanical maintenance B) are primarily useful during environmental crises C) perform a vital, functional service for cities D) have been historically undervalued by citizens
C
The perspective from which a story is told.
point of view
What pronoun should you avoid using during the writing portion?
I
What should you use to figure out the meaning of a word you don't recognize?
Context clues
Fire represents anger
Symbolism
He spoke of the river as if it were an old, fickle neighbor who lived down the road, someone whose moods had to be read in the ripples of the mudflats and the specific tilt of drifting driftwood. "The water don't give gifts," he would say, scraping a thumb across his calloused palm, "it just trades." To a boy of ten, the river was something larger—a glassy highway of infinite escape. But watching him now, bent double over the tangled nylon of the catfish nets while the midday sun baked the riverbank into cracked clay, I saw what the water traded for. It took a man’s spine and bent it like a willow switch; it took the moisture from his skin and left him as dry as an autumn leaf.
3. The imagery in the final two lines of the passage reinforces a theme of A) the restorative power of nature over time B) the physical toll of a life spent in labor C) the generation gap between youth and old age D) the deceitful nature of human ambitions
B
When the author uses sensory language to describe something
imagery
How many texts are provided for Part 2?
4
When forming your claim, you should use the same wording as the...
Task within the directions
Saying the weather is nice during a storm
Irony
The democratization of archival history through digital scanning has revolutionized research, yet it has introduced an unexpected paradox. When historical documents are digitized, they are stripped of their physical context—the texture of the parchment, the chemical composition of the ink, and the watermark of the paper mill. These physical attributes often tell a story that the text alone cannot. For instance, the specific weight of paper used in a 17th-century political pamphlet can reveal whether it was printed covertly on a cheap, smuggled press or backed by a wealthy institutional sponsor. By focusing entirely on the digital word, modern researchers risk becoming blind to the material truths of the past.
4. Which statement best expresses a central idea of the passage? A) Digital archives have made historical research inaccessible to the public. B) The text of a historical document is less important than the material on which it is written. C) Digitization can inadvertently obscure valuable historical data found in a document's physical form. D) Modern historians lack the skills necessary to interpret 17th-century political pamphlets.
C
Giving an object or idea human-like qualities
personification
The date and time of the ELA Regents Exam.
June 9 8:00 AM
The test taking strategey you should use if you aren't sure of an answer
process of elimination
I want to tell them the truth about how I really feel. But what if they don't feel the same way? It's a huge risk. I cannot decide what to do, I am so torn!
Internal Conflict
Mrs. Mallory surveyed the community garden with the practiced, critical eye of a general reviewing troops. To the untrained observer, the plot was a vibrant tapestry of blooming heirloom tomatoes and sprawling zucchini vines. To Mrs. Mallory, it was a battlefield of boundary infractions. Mr. Henderson’s mint had breached the underground timber barrier again, sending insidious green scouts into her neatly manicured patch of radishes. Two plots over, the college students had left an plastic watering can upside down, a flagrant invitation for mosquitoes. She tightened her grip on her trowel. They thought this was a place of leisure, but she knew that without her constant, vigilant policing, the entire ecosystem would collapse into chaos by Friday.
5. The author’s use of military diction ("general," "battlefield," "breached," "scouts") reveals that Mrs. Mallory views her role in the garden as A) an unwanted burden forced upon her by neighbors B) a competitive sport where she must defeat rivals C)an opportunity to teach others about agriculture D) a strict mission to maintain order and control