Reviewing Literary Elements

1. Reviewing Literary Elements

2. Read the following passage and answer questions 1-4 Half a mile from home, at the farther edge of the woods, where the land was highest, a great pine tree stood, the last of its generation. Whether it was left for a boundary mark, or for what reason, no one could say: the woodchoppers who had felled its mates were dead and gone long ago, and a whole forest of sturdy trees, pines and oaks and maples, had grown again. But the stately head of this old pine towered above them all and made a landmark for sea and shore miles and miles away. Sylvia knew it well. She had always believed that whoever climbed to the top of it could see the ocean; and the little girl had often laid her hand on the great rough trunk and looked up wistfully at those dark boughs that the wind always stirred, no matter how hot and still the air might be below. Now she thought of the tree with a new excitement, for why, if one climbed it at break of day, could not one see all the world, and easily discover whence the white heron flew, and mark the place, and find the hidden nest? What a spirit of adventure, what wild ambition! What fancied triumph and delight and glory for the later morning when she could make known the secret! It was almost too real and too great for the childish heart to bear.

3. 1. Where is the SETTING of the passage? A. midwest B. near a large city C. in the woods D. near the mountains

4. 2. What is characterized as being a way to see the world? A. the sea shore • a mountain top • a clear hillside • the great pine tree

5. 3. Which term best describes the MOOD of the passage? A. adventurous B. melancholy C. dangerous D. fearful

6. 4. The PLOT revolves around Sylvia hoping to discover A. how to climb a tree B. how to see the world • the location of the heron’s nest • a way to see the ocean

7. Read the following passage and answer questions 5-8 None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them. These waves were of the hue of slate, save for the tops, which were of foaming white, and all of the men knew the colors of the sea. The horizon narrowed and widened, and dipped and rose, and at all times its edge was jagged with waves that seemed thrust up in points like rocks. Many a man ought to have a bathtub larger than the boat which here rode upon the sea. These waves were most wrongfully and barbarously abrupt and tall, and each froth-top was a problem in small-boat navigation. The cook squatted in the bottom, and looked with both eyes at the six inches of gunwale which separated him from the ocean. His sleeves were rolled over his forearms, and the two flaps of his unbuttoned vest dangled as he bent to bail out the boat. Often he said, “Gwad! that was a narrow clip.” As he remarked it he invariably gazed eastward over the broken sea. The oiler, steering with one of the two oars in the boat, sometimes raised himself suddenly to keep clear of water that swirled in over the stern. It was a thin little oar, and it seemed often ready to snap. The correspondent, pulling at the oar, watched the waves and wondered why he was there.

8. The injured captain, lying in the bow, was at this time buried in that profound dejection and indifference which comes, temporarily at least, to even the bravest and most enduring when, willy-nilly, the firm fails, the army loses, the ship goes down. The mind of the master of a vessel is rooted deep in the timbers of her, though he commanded for a day or a decade; and this captain had on him the stern impression of a scene in the grays of dawn of seven turned faces, and later a stump of a topmast with a white ball on it, that slashed to and fro at the waves, went low and lower, and down. Thereafter there was something strange in his voice. Although steady, it was deep with mourning, and of a quality beyond oration or tears. “Keep’er a little more south, Billie” said he. “A little more south, sir,” said the oiler in the stern. A seat in this boat was not unlike a seat upon a bucking bronco, and by the same token a bronco is not much small. The craft pranced and reared and plunged like an animal. As each wave came, and she rose for it, she seemed like a horse making at a fence outrageously high. The manner of her scramble over these walls of water is a mystic thing, and, moreover, at the top of them were ordinarily these problems in white water, the foam racing down from the summit of each wave requiring a new leap, and a leap from the air. Then, after scornfully bumping a crest, she would slide and race and splash down a long incline, and arrive bobbing and nodding in front of the next menace.

9. 5. Which literary element is PERSONIFIED by narrowing and widening? A. The bow of the boat • Billie’s seat • The skyline D. The sea

10. 6. Which CHARACTER has shown an indifference to the situation? A. the oiler B. Billie C. the captain D. the cook

11. 7. An example of a SIMILE is used to describe which item as “plunging like an animal”? A. the boat B. Billie’s seat C. the sea D. large, foamy waves

12. 8. Which element was unknown to the men in the boat, as they focused upon the waves coming at them? A. time B. season C. the color of the sky D. the height of the waves

13. Read the following selection and answer questions 1-3. On the Extension of the Venetian Republic By William Wordsworth Once did She hold the gorgeous East in fee: And was the safeguard of the West: the worth Of Venice did not fall below her birth, Venice, the eldest Child of Liberty. She was a maiden city, bright and free; No guile seduced, no force could violate; And, when She took unto herself a Mate, She must espouse the everlasting Sea. And what if she had seen those glories fade, Those titles vanish, and that strength decay, Yet shall some tribute of regret be paid When her long life hath reach’d the final day: Men are we, and must grieve when even the Shade Of that which once was great is pass’d away.

14. 1. Which item in the passage is PERSONIFIED by the term “She”? A. a country B. a city C. a woman D. a boat

15. 2. What is meant by the METAPHOR, “Venice, the eldest child of Liberty”? A. Venice is like a child. B. Venice is the earliest example of liberty. C. Venice is the latest example of liberty. D. Venice is the child of liberty.

16. 3. The author overstates the fact that even when the first sign of Venice’s glory fades • men will take up arms. • liberty will strike back • men will grieve • a new beginning will take place.