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Majorship LET Reviewer

LET Reviewer for English
LET Reviewer for English
PRACTICE TEST IN ENGLISH
ENGLISH & AMERICAN LITERATURE

Read the poem below then answer questions 1–3 

My Heart Leaps Up
-William Wordsworth

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky.
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I grow old, 5         
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety

1. What does the poem celebrate as shown in line 1-2? 
A. sadness in death  
B. reverence for nature  
C. familial bonding
D. sense of foreboding

2. What does the persona wish in the last two lines?
A. that he continues to be pious 
B. that he be a child once again 
C. that he continues to be connected to nature  
D. that he fulfills his duties and responsibilities

3. What figure of speech does Wordsworth use in line 7?
A. paradox   
B. metonymy  
C. oxymoron
D. allusion

1. What is the tone of the following lines from Shakespeare’s Hamlet?
A. amazement  
B. mockery  
C. veneration
D. sadness 

2. The following lines from Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess exemplify what poetic strategy?

That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will't please you sit and look at her?

A. Aside  
B. Dialogue
C. Monologue
D. Soliloquy  

3. From what perspective is the following story told?

"I could picture it. I have a rotten habit of picturing the bedroom scenes of my friends. We went out to the Cafe Napolitain to have an aperitif and watch the evening crowd on the Boulevard." from The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. 

A. First person   
B. Second person  
C. Third person omniscient
D. Third person limited

4. What type of irony does Shakespeare use in Anthony’s speech?

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.

A. dramatic irony
C. causal irony
B. irony of situation  
D. verbal irony

5. What do the following lines from William Blake exhort?

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

A. to appreciate even the smallest of things
B. to be extremely imaginative and creative
C. to believe in fantasy like a child
D. to be strong and faithful to God

6. What poetic device is exemplified in the following lines from Edward Taylor’s “Huswifery”? 

Make me, O Lord, thy Spinning Wheel complete,
Thy Holy Word my Distaff make for me.
Make mine Affections thy Swift Flyers neat
And make my Soul thy holy Spool to be.
My Conversation make to be thy Reel
And reel the yarn thereon spun of thy Wheel.

A. irony of statement 
B. pathetic fallacy
C. a literary conceit 
D. a paradoxical line

7. What does the persona in “Huswifery” ask God to do?
A. Complete him as a human being
B. Bless him with food and clothing
C. Mold him into what God wants him to be
D. Clothe him with the finest silk from God 

8. Which two sound devices did Alexander Pope use in the following lines?

Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;
but when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar:

A. Assonance and consonance
B. Alliteration and onomatopoeia
C. Consonance and cacophony
D. Onomatopoeia and assonance

9. What figure of speech is exemplified below?

“The wind stood up and gave a shout. He whistled on his two fingers.”

A. Allusion   
B. Metaphor
C. Onomatopoeia 
D. Personification

10. What type of sonnet is exemplified in the following lines?

When I consider how my light is spent 
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, 
And that one talent which is death to hide 
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent

A. Elizabethan
B. English
C. Petrarchan
D. Spenserian

11. Which statement best summarizes the Holy Sonnet X by John Donne?

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

A. Death shall cease in the after life.
B. Death comes through poppy or charms. 
C. Death takes so many forms and ways.
D. Death should not be proud since it is not mighty.

12. What does the word “swell’st” in the Holy Sonnet X mean?
A. boast   
B. shrink
C. grow
D. swear

13. Which statement about love is true based on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116? 

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

A. Love dissipates when lovers live apart.
B. Love adapts to changing circumstances.
C. Love never wanes even in old age.
D. Love grows even to the edge of doom. 

14. In “To the Virgins to Make Much of Time,” what is the persona’s main message?
A. Be wise in marriage to make life more worthwhile.
B. Marry now, or you may never have another chance.
C. Gather the rosebuds now, before the roses bloom.
D. Choose only lovers who, like roses, are of the highest order.

15. Which word best describes the speaker in “To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars”?

Tell me not, Sweet, I am unkind, 
That from the nunnery 
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind 
To war and arms I fly. 

A. cold-hearted
B. sweet-tongued
C. honorable
D. modest

16. To what sensory perception do the following lines from James Joyce’s Araby appeal?

“…we ran…to the dark dripping gardens to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens where odors arose from the ashpits, to the dark odorous stables where a coachman smoothed and combed the horse or shook music from the buckled harness.”

A. auditory   
B. olfactory
C. gustatory
D. tactile

17. What does the lamb in “The Lamb” symbolize?

Little Lamb, who made thee? 
Dost thou know who made thee? 
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed, 
By the stream and o'er the mead;

A. Power and arrogance are both destructive.
B. Temples and statues are witnesses to history.
C. Powerful rulers and great civilizations perish.
D. Life is short and time is fleeting.

18. Which of the following best states the theme of Ozymandias?

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: 
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" 
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay 
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare 
The lone and level sands stretch far away. 

A. Power and arrogance are both destructive.
B. Temples and statues are witnesses to history.
C. Powerful rulers and great civilizations perish.
D. Life is short and time is fleeting.

19. What 17th Century philosophy does Browning assert in the following lines from Rabbi Ben Ezra?

Ay, note that Potter’s wheel,
That metaphor! and feel
Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay,—
Thou, to whom fools propound,
When the wine makes its round,        
“Since life fleets, all is change; the Past gone, seize to-day!”

A. anagnorisis    
B. carpe diem
C. peripeteia
D. romanticism

20. What lesson does the speaker learn in A.E. Housman’s When I Was One-and-Twenty?

'The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
'Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue.'
And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.

A. The speaker realizes the value of listening to pieces of advice.
B. The speaker learns the foolishness of disobeying his elders.
C. The speaker realizes the folly and pain of youthful love.
D. The speaker learns the stupidity of wasting his youth.

1. How does Shelley regard the west wind in the following ode?

From Ode to the West Wind

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill:

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and Preserver; hear, oh, hear!

A. It is responsible for preserving life.
B. It can both wipe out and maintain life.
C. It is a wild spirit in nature that is very strong.
D. It is strong but weak since it is everywhere.

2. How does the speaker picture God in the following sermon?

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider; or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.

A. incensed   
B. abominable
C. assertive
D. vengeful

3. Paradise Lost is considered among the greatest epics in English.  Which of the following was the basis for this epic poem?
A. treachery of Judas Iscariot  
B. the passion of Christ   
C. fall from God’s grace
D. sinning of Adam and Eve 

4. What does the speaker mean in the following lines?

“Let’s so persevere
That when we live no more, we may live ever”
From To My Dear and Loving Husband

A. Let’s continue writing poetry to immortalize us.
B. Let’s have faith in God and He will keep us alive.
C. Let’s be true to our love, and we will be joined in eternity.
D. Let’s have lots of children to remember us when we die.

5. Which of the following is NOT an example of Gothic literature?
A. Dracula   
B. Lord of the Rings
C. Frankenstein
D. Tell Tale Heart 

6. According to the speaker in Sanburg’s "Chicago," how would most others describe the city? 

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.

A. Admirable   
B. Amusing
C. Immoral
D. Vibrant

7. What does the speaker like about Chicago as shown in the following lines? 

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
     so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
     job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
     little soft cities;

A. Its vitality
B. Its wickedness
C. Its indifference
D. Its progress

8. Who are the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot Paine alluded to in The Crisis?

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

A. The cowards who love their country less    
B. The brave men and women in the country  
C. The happy optimistic people
D. The former heroes of the revolution 

9. What does that the speaker lament over in the following lines?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". - (Romeo and Juliet Act II, Scene II)

A. Roses will always be roses despite their variety.
B. Their names keep Romeo and Juliet apart.
C. Romeo and Juliet will always love one another.
D. Changing names will help Romeo and Juliet.

10. Which of the following is an example of novel of the soil?
A.  The Good Earth   
B.  Bread and Wine   
C.  Catcher in the Rye
D.  Sound and the Fury

11. What does the speaker celebrate in “The Soul Selects her own Society”?

The soul selects her own society,
Then shuts the door;
On her divine majority
Obtrude no more.

A.  conformity  
B.  community
C.  life and freedom
D.  self-imposed isolation

12. What do the following lines reveal about the world?

"All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts" - (As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII) 

A. Life is just like going to the theater.  
B. People have different roles to play in life.
C. Life is but an empty, senseless dream.
D. People live and die at different times.

13. What truth about humans do the following lines from A Noiseless Patient Spider reveal?

And you, O my Soul, where you stand,
Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space, 
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,--seeking 
    the spheres, to connect them;
Till the bridge you will need, be form'd--till the ductile anchor hold;
Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.

A. People need food and shelter
B. People search for their meaning
C. People need friends and families
D. People endlessly seek to create

14. Which of the following is the resounding theme of contemporary stories like Hemingway’s A Clean and Well Lighted Place and Anderson’s Hands?
A. alienation from the society  
B. melancholia in solitude
C. respect for the old
D. contentment in life

15. Who is alluded to as the Captain in the following lines from Whitman’s poem?

O captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won.

A. Abraham Lincoln   
B. George Washington
C. John F. Kennedy
D. Thomas Jefferson

16. In the passage, which of the following best describes the speaker's attitude toward the very rich? 

Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different.

A. He finds their pessimism alarming and unwarranted.
B. He finds them so different from the rest of society 
C. He believes that the rich know more than others do.
D. He thinks that he understands their way of life.

17. What is the tone of the speaker in the previous passage?
A. Optimistic   
B. Laconic
C. Pessimistic
D. Sarcastic

18. What do the novels of Bronte, Eliot, Gaskell and Dickens reveal about fiction produced during the Victorian period in English Literature?
A. They closely represent the real social life of the times.
B. The novels were long and full of psychological musings.
C. They concentrate on the effect of industrialization on cities. 
D. They were largely produced by upper middle-class women.

19. What do the last two lines from Freneau’s The Wild Honeysuckle reveal about life?

From morning suns and evening dews 
At first thy little being came; 
If nothing once, you nothing lose, 
For when you die you are the same; 
The space between is but an hour, 
The frail duration of flower.

A. Life is just an hour.     
B. Life is frail.
C. Life is short.
D. It is like a flower.

20. What do the following lines from Wordsworth’s Psalm of Life reveal about heroes and heroism?

Lives of great men all remind us
  We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
  Footprints on the sands of time;
          
A. Anybody can be a hero. 
B. Heroes are often forgotten. 
C. Heroes are easy to find
B. It is easy to do heroic acts.


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