ENG 252 Midterm Exam

Regionalism was popular throughout America

Americans’ curiosity about how people lived in other areas of the country.

This theory of literature is applied to fiction that tends to place special emphasis on a particular setting, including its customs, clothing, dialect, and landscape.

Regionalism

What was Mark Twain's name for the materialistic years following the Civil War?

The Gilded Age

In "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," Jim Smiley's favorite activity is

Placing bets

Which of the following adjectives best describe Jim Smiley?

Cheerful and clever

Which of the following does Mark Twain use to add humor to this story?

Colorful names for the characters

While describing the dog fight, Simon Wheeler says that Smiley's dog "would grab the other dog...and hang on till they throwed up the sponge." In this sentence the words throwed up the sponge mean that the people watching the dog fight would:

Admit that they had lost the bet

One aspect of the story that makes it humorous is the factr that

Simon Wheeler does not recognize how ridiculous his tale is.

Which of the following excerpts contains an example of hyperbole or exaggeration?

“He got him up so in the matter of ketching flies, and kep’ him in practice so constant, that he’d nail a fly every time as fur as he could see him.”

Why did Smiley act indifferent when the stranger asked him about Dan'l Webster?

Smiley was hoping to convince the stranger to bet on how well Dan’l could jump.

Which of the following excerpts uses a simile to add humor to the story?

"He'd give him a little punch behind, and the next minute you'd see that frog whirling in the air like a doughnut."

In "Editha," the title character's giving George lemonade to drink

symbolizes her attempt to cloud his judgement

The character(s) who were not sympathetic to Editha's views is/are

George’s mother and Editha’s mother (both A and B)

At the end of the story Editha

continues to live in the ideal

George decides to join the military because

He is encouraged by the other men & he drinks too much (both B and C)

The resolution of "A White Heron" suggests that

a person's bond with nature can be more important than a bond with people and society

Sylvia and the white heron have in common

Reclusiveness, innocence, and fragility

When she accompanies the young man on his hunts, Sylvia especially wonders why he

kills the birds he admires so much

During the Civil War, Union soldiers in Alabama are making preparations to 

hang a Confederate saboteur

The last thoughts to pass through the mind of the condemned man are about

his wife and children

Peyton Farguhar is a 

gentleman planter

At the gate of his home, he is greeted by the sight of

his smiling wife

The surprise ending of the story reveals that Farguhar's actual fate was 

death by hanging

On his homeward journey through the forest, Farguhar notices that the landscape is

unfamiliar

After gaining consciousness in the river, Farguhar is most worried about being

shot

Which of the following contributes most to the feeling of suspense in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"?

the unexpected sequence in which the events are related

Why does the author describe how Peyton Farquhar reacts to the sound of his watch?

to show that Farquhar’s sense perceptions had become distorted

Bierce encourages the reader to sympathize with Peyton Farquhar by

including details about his family

What is the main function of the flashback in this story?

to explain why Peyton Farquhar is being hanged

Dividing the story into three distinct parts contributes to its effectiveness mainly by

helping the reader follow the sequence of events when actions are not presented in chronological order

The main conflict in "The Revolt of Mother" is between Sarah and

society’s demands on her

The most important reason Sarah Penn has chosen this moment to make a stand regarding the house is

she realizes that her husband will never build her the house since he has built the barn on the same property

In "The Revolt of Mother" Sarah represents Freeman's protagonist who

is a deeply conventional person driven to commit one uncharacteristically rebellious act

What is the reaction of the town in regard to her moving into the barn?

She has lost her mind & She has become a rebellious wife (both A an B)

Sarah justifies her actions

that Providence had created a situation which provided her the opportunity to move into the barn

In "Desiree's Baby," with whom does Armand think he is getting even by agreeing that Desiree should return to the Valmonds?

God

Which of the following was not burned at the end of the story in Armand's bonfire?

a letter from Madame Valmond attesting to Desiree’s white lineage

What changes in Armand's behavior has Desiree noticed after her son was born?

Armand is so pleased with his son that he has stopped punishing his servants.

Under what circumstances did Armand fall in love with Desiree?

He rode by one day and saw her by a stone pillar and was smitten

How does Desiree first learn her baby is not completely white?

Desiree compares her baby with the mixed-race son of her maid

In "The Open Boat" what is the final indication of nature's unfairness?

the death of the oiler

Which of the following phrases best describes the natural world as represented in the story by the gulls and the sharks?

indifferent and sinister

What can be inferred about Crane's view of human nature from the behavior of the four men in the boat?

he saw people has pathetic and self-deceived victims of fate

What is the theme of "The Open Boat"?

a character grows to see the need for humans to depend on each other as he realizes the harsh indifference of nature

In the poem "War Is Kind" the two-line refrain "Do not weep/War is kind" clearly is

deeply ironic

The theme of "War Is Kind"

deals with the suffering of war

In "A Man Said to the Universe" Crane regards the universe as

under no obligation to humans

The theme of "A Man Said to the Univerise"

indicates the universe is unconcerned with the live of mankind

Crane's world view is closely related to

naturalism

In "The Open Boat" the greatest growth is seen in

the correspondent

Miniver Cheevy's unhappiness was apparently caused by

his love of the past and his dissatisfaction with the present

Miniver Cheevy attempted to solve his problem by 

drinking excessively

When he refers to "Priam's neighbors," the poet is using the poetic device of 

allusion

How does Robinson make Richard Cory's suicide more ironic?

He uses a speaker whose perceptions of Cory are inaccurate

Which of the following elements of "Richard Cory" contributes most to the dramatic irony of the poem?

the fact that the speaker believed he was happy

The words that Robinson used in describing Richard Cory gave the effect of a

rich, cultured, powerful member of royalty

Based on the information provided in "Miniver Cheevy" and "Richard Cory" how is Richard Cory's attitude about life similar to Miniver Cheevy's?

Both are unhappy with what they have and wish for something that is missing in their lives

"Miniver Cheery" and "Richard Cory" are characteristics of Naturalism mainly because these poems:

draw conclusions based on observations of reality

In "Mending Wall" the "something" that doesn't love a wall is

never really explained or defined by the author

The mischievous humor that Frost employs in the lines "My apple trees will never get across/And eat the cones under his pines..." really means that

the fence is not necessary

To emphasize the result of the refusal of his neighbor to abandon his father's beliefs, the poet compares him to

an old-stone savage

Frost's attitude in "Mending Wall" appears to be that 

sometimes fences are necessary, but for the most part they create more problems than they solve

The overall effect of the imagery in "Design" suggests that 

evil masquerades as innocence

The "Death of the Hired Man" concerns 

the death of a freedom-loving man

In "The Sculptor's Funeral" what example or examples of the town's own corruption did Laird remind them of?

Banker Elder cheated his own father out of everything by swearing in court that he was a liar

The G.A.R. man wanted an increase in his pension because of his indigestion

 Banker Phelps wanted Laird to cheat Widow Wilson out of her little farm

ALL OF THE ABOVE

What was the real tragedy of Harvey Merrick's life?

the insensitivity of his family and the townspeople

Steavens understands that Harvey's tragedy is 

frontier warfare & the struggle of a sensitive spirit to survive in a frontier setting (both A and B)

The dominant figure in the Merrick household was

Mrs. Merrick

The final paragraph shows that Jim Laird

is a man of Sand City after all.

The dominant color used to represent Jim Laird is

red

In “Hands” Biddlebaum’s hands are compared to

the wings of an imprisoned bird

In “Hands” “the hidden, shadowy doubts that had been in men’s minds” found Adolph Myers guilty of

sexual misconduct

Anderson define the grotesques as individuals who

have become obsessed with an idea or concept

The main topic of “Spring and All” can best be described as

a change in season

The tone of “Anecdote of a Jar” is

majestic and powerful

In Williams’ “The Dance” the poet

all of the above — uses repetition to recreate the motion of dance, creates anonymous figures to focus on the physical movement, uses a dance-like rhythm to parallel the dance

“Chicago” opens with an admiring evocation of the city’s renown as a center for

all of the above — railroads, manufacturing, stockyards

In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” the lines “When the evening is spread out against the sky/ Like a patient etherized upon a table" accurately describe the poem's setting and mood because

it suggests the drowsy quality of the hour and the nature of spiritual sickness

At the beginning of the poem such scenes as "sawdust restaurants," "cheap hotels," and "half-deserted streets" indicate

the dreariness and emptiness of modern urban life

The question toward which Prufrock seems to be heading, but really never asks is

how can some meaningful pattern be made our of life's chaotic experiences

The poem implies that Prufrock is

an indecisive person likely to be produced by modern society

In the poem "Poetry," "a place for the genuine" suggests that poetry can be useful to 

bring to the reader true knowledge, insight, and feeling

By "literalists of the imagination," Moore means that poets must

relate the real world and the world of fancy

The assertion that genuine poetry presents "for inspection, imaginary gardens with real toads in them" implies that a poem should 

all of the above — contain both the concrete and the abstract, deal with the familiar and the strange, have sharp images

Sandburg's attitude toward the city in "Chicago" is 

wholly defensive

In Part 1 of The Wasteland, "The Burial of the Dead" focuses on

modern man as dead inside going through the motions of living

In Part II "A Game of Chess" the arena where the game is played is

marriage

The water from the Holy Grail holds hope for 

all of the above — (resurrection, redemption, rebirth)

Man cannot hear the thunder's cry of "Dayadhvam" because 

he is too fixated on his own problems

Pound's "At a Station of the Metro" is an example of 

imagistic poetry