Review A
Which of these excerpts from Pope’s The Rape of the Lock most clearly depicts the upper-class as petty and shallow?
“In various talk th’ instructive hours they passed…”
“But this bold lord with manly strength endued…”
"Who sought no more than on his foe to die.”
"At every word a reputation dies.”
At every word a reputation dies.”
Which of these lines from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 portrays the emotion of joy?
a. And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries…”
b. With what I most enjoy contented least…”
c. Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope…”
d. For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings…
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings…
Which of these excerpts from Beowulf describes the monster Grendel in terms of Christian beliefs?
a. Conceived by a pair of those monsters born/Of Cain, murderous creatures…”
b. “Then, when darkness had dropped, Grendel/Went up to Herot…”
c. Seeing how Grendel hunted when they slept./Distance was safety…”
d. “And sometimes they sacrificed to the old stone gods,/Made heathen vows…”
Conceived by a pair of those monsters born/Of Cain, murderous creatures…”
Which of these lines from The Canterbury Tales’ “Prologue” states the purpose of the characters’ pilgrimage?
a. “To ride abroad had followed chivalry…”
b. “To a poor Order that a man’s well shriven…”
c. “To arbitrate disputes on settling days…”
d. “To seek the holy blissful martyr, quick…
To seek the holy blissful martyr, quick…
In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” with which of these statements does the Knight decry his fate?
a. “You’re old, and so abominably plain,/So poor… so low-bred…”
b. “I could set right what you suppose a blunder,/That’s if I cared to…”
c. “Christ wills we take our gentleness from Him…”
d. “But gentleness, as you will recognize,/Is not annexed… to possessions
“You’re old, and so abominably plain,/So poor… so low-bred…
When the speaker in The Wanderer refers to Fate as fickle, he or she means that Fate cannot be
a. counted on.
b. taunted.
c. anticipated.
d. seen as random.
counted on.
Which of these lines from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 portrays the emotion of forlornness?
a. I all alone beweep my outcast state…”
b. Haply I think on thee, and then my state…”
c. From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate…”
d. Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope…
I all alone beweep my outcast state…”
Which of these excerpts from Beowulf best describes Beowulf’s reason for attacking Grendel’s mother?
a. whispered together/And said that hope was gone, that the hero/Had lost…”
b. and Holy/God, who sent him victory, gave judgment/For truth and right…”
c. so fame/Comes to the men who mean to win it/And care about nothing else!”
d. the sword was wet/With her blood, and Beowulf rejoiced at the sight.”
So fame/Comes to the men who mean to win it/And care about nothing else!”
Which of these lines from The Canterbury Tales’ “Prologue” best describes the chivalry of the Knight?
a. There was a Knight, a most distinguished man…”
b. “…Truth, honor, generousness, and courtesy.”
c. “He had done nobly in his sovereign’s war…”
d. “…This same distinguished Knight had led the van…”
Truth, honor, generousness, and courtesy.”
One character in The Canterbury Tales is described as a “high-ranking lawyer,” one whose duty is to draft property documents, or
a. brooches.
b. deeds.
c. martyrs.
d. casks.
deeds
The speaker in The Wanderer believes that wisdom comes to those who are not craven, or
a. cowardly.
b. studious.
c. ignorant.
d. foolhardy.
cowerdly
Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, in which he explains how poor parents could benefit by selling their infants for use as food.
“Secondly, the poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own, which by law may be made liable to distress, and help pay their landlord’s rent, their corn and cattle being already seized, and money a thing unknown.”
What point is Swift really making?
a. The wealthy take enormous advantage of the poor.
b. The poor would be eager to sell their infants for food.
c. The poor would take advantage of the wealthy if they could.
d. The wealthy are not able to financially maintain their properties.
The wealthy take enormous advantage of the poor.
Which of these excerpts from Beowulf best describes what Beowulf expects the outcome of his battle with the dragon to be?
How does Chaucer’s choice to set The Canterbury Tales’ “Prologue” in spring contribute to the narrative?
a. It underscores the arduous journey the characters are about to take.
b. It emphasizes the limited time the characters have to make their pilgrimage.
c. It reinforces the notion that martyrdom is something to be avoided.
d. It casts the idea of religious pilgrimage as a new beginning.
It casts the idea of religious pilgrimage as a new beginning.
from “The Seafarer.”
“… No man sheltered/On the quiet fairness of earth can feel/How wretched I was…”
Which of these best describes the tone evoked by these words?
a. despondence
b. resignation
c. anger
d. conten
despondence
Which of these excerpts from Pepys’s The Fire of London most clearly indicates that the work is a first-person account?
a. “Extraordinary good goods carried in carts…”
b. “Everybody endeavoring to remove their goods, and flinging into the river…”
c. “Here I saw Mr. Isaake Houblon, the handsome man, prettily dressed and dirty…”
d. “Poor Mitchell’s house, as far as the Old Swan, already burned that way…
Here I saw Mr. Isaake Houblon, the handsome man, prettily dressed and dirty…”
Let me not to the marriage of true minds/Admit impediments…”
In these lines from Sonnet 116, how does Shakespeare describe true love?
a. as fleeting
b. as unpredictable
c. as invulnerable
d. as indefinable
as invulnerable
When Wexton’s son conquered the dragon in The Death of Beowulf, it left him flushed, or
a. weakened from exertion.
b. saddened from exhaustion.
c. reddened with exhilaration.
d. shaking in frustration
reddened with exhilaration.
Which line from “The Pardoner’s Tale” best displays the Pardoner’s true attitude toward his religion?
a. I cultivate a haughty kind of speech…”
b. “There’s no apostle I would counterfeit…”
c. “I have a text, it always is the same…”
d. “… And all my antics are a joy to see.”
“There’s no apostle I would counterfeit…”
“Such is the power of love in gentle mind,/That it can alter all the course of kind.”
Which of these best restates these closing lines from Spencer’s Sonnet 30?
a. Love must be reciprocated to be real.
b. Love can drive a person to madness.
c. Love can never truly be achieved.
d. Love ultimately makes no sense
Love ultimately makes no sense.
Which line from Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard most plainly asserts the worth of the poor and unknown?
(1 point)
a. “… And all the air a solemn stillness holds…”
b. “… The little tyrant of his fields withstood…”
c. “… No children run to lisp their sire’s return…”
d. “…Full many a flow’r is born to blush unseen…”
Full many a flow’r is born to blush unseen…”
According to The Canterbury Tales, Canterbury contains the grave of a person who died for his religious beliefs—in other words, a
a. clergyman.
b. radical.
c. disciple.
d. martyr.
martyr.
Donne’s A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning:
“Our two souls therefore, which are one,/Though I must go, endure not yet/A breach, but an expansion,/Like gold to airy thinness beat.”
With statement best paraphrases the lines above?
a. Our love can endure our physical absence from each other.
b. Our love becomes thinner the farther we are apart.
c. Our souls are as precious as gold.
d. Our souls can endure any breach that arises between them.
Our love can endure our physical absence from each other.
Which line from “The Pardoner’s Tale” best displays the Pardoner’s true attitude toward those who look to him for spiritual guidance?
a. Them from it, I can bring them to repent…”
b. A string of starving children, all agape.”
c. A livelihood. I do not preach in vain.”
d. “Once dead what matter how their souls may fare?”
“Once dead what matter how their souls may fare?”
My love is like to ice, and I to fire;/How comes it then that this her cold so great/Is not dissolved by my so hot desire…”
In these opening lines from Spencer’s Sonnet 30, what is the speaker lamenting?
a. the brevity of life
b. unreciprocated love
c. his unending poverty
d. his physical discomfort
unreciprocated love