Pretest: The Late Nineteenth Century: Realism and Naturalism Submit Test Reader Tools Info Save & Exit

Match each excerpt from William Dean Howells's story "Editha" to a specific tone.

". . . it won't be much of a war, and I guess Gearson don't think so, either. The other fellows will back down as soon as they see we mean it. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. I'm going back to bed, myself." -> careless amusement ". . . you've done a wicked thing, Editha Balcom." -> criticism " . . . What a thing it is to have a country that can't be wrong, but if it is, is right anyway!" -> sarcasm "That ignoble peace! It was no peace at all, with that crime and shame at our very gates." -> vacant and fake idealism

Which sentence refers to the reality of Farquhar's situation in the dream sequence in section 3 of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"? They tore it away and thrust it fiercely aside, its undulations resembling those of a water snake. "Put it back, put it back!" He thought he shouted these words to his hands, for the undoing of the noose had been succeeded by the direst pang that he had yet experienced. His neck ached horribly; his brain was on fire, his heart, which had been fluttering faintly, gave a great leap, trying to force itself out at his mouth. His whole body was racked and wrenched with an insupportable anguish! But his disobedient hands gave no heed to the command. They beat the water vigorously with quick, downward strokes, forcing him to the surface. He felt his head emerge; his eyes were blinded by the sunlight; his chest expanded convulsively, and with a supreme and crowning agony his lungs engulfed a great draught of air, which instantly he expelled in a shriek!

"His neck ached horribly; his brain was on fire, his heart, which had been fluttering faintly, gave a great leap, trying to force itself out at his mouth."

Which sentence in this excerpt from Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" suggests that despite her growing insanity, the narrator still retains some awareness of what society expects of her? I tried to lift and push it until I was lame, and then I got so angry I bit off a little piece at one corner—but it hurt my teeth. Then I peeled off all the paper I could reach standing on the floor. It sticks horribly and the pattern just enjoys it! All those strangled heads and bulbous eyes and waddling fungus growths just shriek with derision! I am getting angry enough to do something desperate. To jump out of the window would be admirable exercise, but the bars are too strong even to try. Besides I wouldn't do it. Of course not. I know well enough that a step like that is improper and might be misconstrued. I don't like to look out of the windows even—there are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast.

"I know well enough that a step like that is improper and might be misconstrued."

Which two sentences in this excerpt from Jack London's "The Human Drift" express the main argument of the excerpt? It has always been so, from the time of the first pre-human anthropoid crossing a mountain-divide in quest of better berry-bushes beyond, down to the latest Slovak, arriving on our shores to-day, to go to work in the coal-mines of Pennsylvania. These migratory movements of peoples have been called drifts, and the word is apposite. Unplanned, blind, automatic, spurred on by the pain of hunger, man has literally drifted his way around the planet.There have been drifts in the past, innumerable and forgotten, and so remote that no records have been left, or composed of such low-typed humans or pre-humans that they made no scratchings on stone or bone and left no monuments to show that they had been. These early drifts we conjecture and know must have occurred, just as we know that the first upright-walking brutes were descended from some kin of the quadrumana through having developed "a pair of great toes out of two opposable thumbs." Dominated by fear, and by their very fear accelerating their development, these early ancestors of ours, suffering hunger-pangs very like the ones we experience to-day, drifted on, hunting and being hunted, eating and being eaten, wandering through thousand-year-long odysseys of screaming primordial savagery, until they left their skeletons in glacial gravels, some of them, and their bone-scratchings in cave-men's lairs. There have been drifts from east to west and west to east, from north to south and back again, drifts that have criss-crossed one another, and drifts colliding and recoiling and caroming off in new directions. From Central Europe the Aryans have drifted into Asia, and from Central Asia the Turanians have drifted across Europe.

1. "It has always been so, from the time of the first pre-human anthropoid crossing a mountain-divide in quest of better berry-bushes beyond, down to the latest Slovak, arriving on our shores to-day, to go to work in the coal-mines of Pennsylvania. These migratory movements of peoples have been called drifts, and the word is apposite. Unplanned, blind, automatic, spurred on by the pain of hunger, man has literally drifted his way around the planet." 2. "Dominated by fear, and by their very fear accelerating their development, these early ancestors of ours, suffering hunger-pangs very like the ones we experience to-day, drifted on, hunting and being hunted, eating and being eaten, wandering through thousand-year-long odysseys of screaming primordial savagery, until they left their skeletons in glacial gravels, some of them, and their bone-scratchings in cave-men's lairs."

Complete each analogy with the appropriate word.

1. Wood is to fire as food is to substance. - Wood creates fire the same way food is substance for people (plus here you have to use a noun, and substance is the only noun here) 2. Grinning is to cheerful as teetering is to precarious - precarious is something that is not balanced, and can fall at any moment 3. Conniving is to scheming as terrible is to abysmal - abysmal is something that is extremely bad or terrible 4. Mournful is to sad as gluttonous is to voracious - voracious means insatiable, always craving more and more

The wallpaper in the "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman symbolizes __________________ in the story. The narrator projects her own feelings of _________________ onto the woman creeping behind the wallpaper.

1st blank: the narrator's mental state 2nd blank: feelings of being trapped and her desire to escape

Match each excerpt from "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman to the poetic device used.

A). Alliteration O suns - O grass of graves - O perpetual transfers and promotions B). Assonance No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before C). Rhyme Hous-es and rooms are full of per-fumes D). Parallelism I ascend from the moon, I ascend from the night

In which of the following excerpts from "The Yellow Wall Paper" does author Charlotte Perkins Gilman seem to mock the romantic belief in the supernatural? A. A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity—but that would be asking too much of fate! B. There is a delicious garden! I never saw such a garden—large and shady, full of box-bordered paths, and lined with long grape-covered arbors with seats under them. C. The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. D. Then I peeled off all the paper I could reach standing on the floor. It sticks horribly and the pattern just enjoys it!

A. A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity- but that would be asking too much of fate!

In what way did realists try to portray life? A. as objectively as possible B. as subjectively as possible C. as happily as possible D. as depressingly as possible

A. as objectively as possible

Which aspect of Editha's character does the following excerpt from William Dean Howells's short story "Editha" reveal? "That ignoble peace! It was no peace at all, with that crime and shame at our very gates." She was conscious of parroting the current phrases of the newspapers, but it was no time to pick and choose her words. She must sacrifice anything to the high ideal she had for him, and after a good deal of rapid argument she ended with the climax: "But now it doesn't matter about the how or why. Since the war has come, all that is gone. There are no two sides, any more. There is nothing now but our country." A. empty idealism B. pragmatism C. manipulation D. moral fortitude

A. empty idealism

What does Mark Twain satirize in this excerpt from "The £1,000,000 Bank-Note"? It was a lovely dinner-party of fourteen. The Duke and Duchess of Shoreditch, and their daughter the Lady Anne-Grace-Eleanor-Celeste-and-so-forth-and-so-forth-de-Bohun, the Earl and Countess of Newgate, Viscount Cheapside, Lord and Lady Blatherskite, some untitled people of both sexes, the minister and his wife and daughter, and his daughter's visiting friend, an English girl of twenty-two, named Portia Langham, whom I fell in love with in two minutes, and she with me—I could see it without glasses. There was still another guest, an American—but I am a little ahead of my story. A. the long list of names required to address certain nobles B. the English customs of hosting frequent dinner parties C. the lack of importance given to Americans by Englishmen D. the eccentric and absurd practices of the British upper class

A. the long list of names required to address certain nobles

What is the main difference between third-person omniscient and third-person limited points of view? A. An outside narrator relays the inner thoughts of all characters in third-person limited point of view but those of just one character in third-person omniscient point of view. B. An outside narrator relays the inner thoughts of one character in third-person limited point of view but those of more than one character in third-person omniscient point of view. C. The narrator relays his own inner thoughts in third-person omniscient point of view but another character's in third-person limited point of view. D. The narrator relays his own inner thoughts in third-person limited point of view but another character's in third-person omniscient point of view.

B. An outside narrator relays the inner thoughts of one character in third-person limited point of view but those of more than one character in third-person omniscient point of view.

What does Mark Twain satirize in this excerpt from "The £1,000,000 Bank-Note"? It was a lovely dinner-party of fourteen. The Duke and Duchess of Shoreditch, and their daughter the Lady Anne-Grace-Eleanor-Celeste-and-so-forth-and-so-forth-de-Bohun, the Earl and Countess of Newgate, Viscount Cheapside, Lord and Lady Blatherskite, some untitled people of both sexes, the minister and his wife and daughter, and his daughter's visiting friend, an English girl of twenty-two, named Portia Langham, whom I fell in love with in two minutes, and she with me—I could see it without glasses. There was still another guest, an American—but I am a little ahead of my story. A. the long list of names required to address certain nobles B. the English customs of hosting frequent dinner parties C. the lack of importance given to Americans by Englishmen D. the eccentric and absurd practices of the British upper class

B. Rich Londoners are quick to bet huge sums of money to settle trivial arguments.

What social commentary does Mark Twain make in this excerpt from "The £1,000,000 Bank-Note"? You will remember that the Bank of England once issued two notes of a million pounds each, to be used for a special purpose connected with some public transaction with a foreign country. For some reason or other only one of these had been used and canceled; the other still lay in the vaults of the Bank. Well, the brothers, chatting along, happened to get to wondering what might be the fate of a perfectly honest and intelligent stranger who should be turned adrift in London without a friend, and with no money but that million-pound bank-note, and no way to account for his being in possession of it. Brother A said he would starve to death; Brother B said he wouldn't. Brother A said he couldn't offer it at a bank or anywhere else, because he would be arrested on the spot. So they went on disputing till Brother B said he would bet twenty thousand pounds that the man would live thirty days, any way, on that million, and keep out of jail, too. Brother A took him up. Brother B went down to the Bank and bought that note. Just like an Englishman, you see; pluck to the backbone. A. Rich Londoners love to profess their wealth and use it to settle any argument. B. Rich Londoners are quick to bet huge sums of money to settle trivial arguments. C. Rich Londoners are apathetic toward the condition of the poor and would often use them as subjects for bets. D. Rich Londoners would spend huge sums of money to gain popularity in the upper class of London.

B. Rich Londoners are quick to bet huge sums of money to settle trivial arguments.

What important naturalist theme is reflected in this excerpt from Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat"? The birds sat comfortably in groups, and they were envied by some in the dinghy, for the wrath of the sea was no more to them than it was to a covey of prairie chickens a thousand miles inland. Often they came very close and stared at the men with black bead-like eyes. At these times they were uncanny and sinister in their unblinking scrutiny, and the men hooted angrily at them, telling them to be gone. . . . the captain gently and carefully waved the gull away. After it had been discouraged from the pursuit the captain breathed easier on account of his hair, and others breathed easier because the bird struck their minds at this time as being somehow gruesome and ominous. A. The seagulls are an omen of bad luck that create a feeling of dread in the crew. B. The seagulls symbolize the subconscious fears and anxieties of the crew. C. The seagulls are a sign that nature will not protect the crew from drowning. D. The seagulls are indifferent, yet the crew believes they are mocking them.

B. The seagulls symbolize the subconscious fears and anxieties of the crew.

Based on the context of each quote from Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," choose the word that most closely matches the denotation of the bolded word.

But in the places where it isn't faded and where the sun is just so—I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure that seems to skulk; lie in wait about behind that silly and conspicuous front design. -> markedly noticeable Looked at in one way each breadth stands alone, the bloated curves and flourishes—a kind of "debased Romanesque" with delirium tremens—go waddling up and down in isolated columns of fatuity. -> bad quality There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down. -> swollen "Better in body perhaps — " I began, and stopped short, for he sat up straight and looked at me with such a stern, reproachful look that I could not say another word. -> disappointing

What is the author's tone in this line from William Dean Howells's "Editha"? Then Editha's father said in his public-will-now-address-a-few remarks tone, "My name is Balcom, ma'am; Junius Balcom, of Balcom's Works, NewYork. . . ." A. angry B. solemn C. sarcastic D. moralistic

C. sarcastic

In the excerpt, the thesis statement is expressed in these sentences: Man early discovered death. As soon as his evolution permitted, he made himself better devices for killing than the old natural ones of fang and claw. Which of these supporting premises reinforces the thesis statement? I.Like a settler clearing land of its weeds and forest bushes in order to plant corn, so man was compelled to clear all manner of life away in order to plant himself. II.He devoted himself to the invention of killing devices before he discovered fire or manufactured for himself religion. III.And ever he has carried the battle wider and wider, until to-day not only is he a far more capable killer of men and animals than ever before, but he has pressed the battle home to the infinite and invisible hosts of menacing lives in the world of microorganisms. IV.And from the fear-stricken, jungle-lurking, cave-haunting creature of long ago, he won to empery over the whole animal world. A. I B. I and II C. IV D. I, II and III E. II and IV

D. I, II and III

In this excerpt from Emily Dickinson's poem "Dying," what is the meaning of the word onset? I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—The Stillness in the RoomWas like the Stillness in the Air—Between the Heaves of Storm— The Eyes around—had wrung them dry—And Breaths were gathering firmFor that last Onset—when the KingBe witnessed—in the Room— A. arrival B. beginning C. creation D. emergence

D. emergence

In this line from Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself," what is the meaning of the word leavings? And as to you Life I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths A. memories B. rubbish C. leftovers D. legacy

D. legacy

Read this excerpt from Stephen Crane's short story "The Open Boat": The injured captain, lying in the bow, was at this time buried in thatprofound dejection and indifference which comes, temporarily at least, toeven the bravest and most enduring when, willy nilly, the firm fails, thearmy loses, the ship goes down. What is the meaning of the word dejection in the context of the excerpt? A. deep thought B. introspection C. discomfort D. low spirits

D. low spirits

"Editha" by William Dean Howells is a story about characters who ritualistically follow the popular beliefs and norms of society even though they may be ignorant and emotionally distanced from actual facts and circumstances. Which two lines in the excerpt suggest this character trait? Her father went with her on the long railroad journey from northern New York to western Iowa; he had business out at Davenport, and he said he could just as well go then as any other time; and he went with her to the little country town where George's mother lived in a little house on the edge of the illimitable cornfields, under trees pushed to a top of the rolling prairie. George's father had settled there after the Civil War, as so many other old soldiers had done; but they were Eastern people, and Editha fancied touches of the East in the June rose overhanging the front door, and the garden with early summer flowers stretching from the gate of the paling fence. It was very low inside the house, and so dim, with the closed blinds, that they could scarcely see one another: Editha tall and black in her crapes which filled the air with the smell of their dyes; her father standing decorously apart with his hat on his forearm, as at funerals; a woman rested in a deep arm-chair, and the woman who had let the strangers in stood behind the chair.

George's father had settled there after the Civil War, as so many other old soldiers had done her father standing decorously apart with his hat on his forearm, as at funerals (not completely correct)

Which three lines in this excerpt from "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman indicate that all human beings are equal in the poet's eyes? I am the poet of the woman the same as the man, And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man, And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of men. I chant the chant of dilation or pride, We have had ducking and deprecating about enough, I show that size is only development. Have you outstript the rest? are you the President? It is a trifle, they will more than arrive there every one, and still pass on.

I am the poet of the woman the same as the man, And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man, Have you outstript the rest? are you the President?

Match each literary movement with the elements that characterize it.

Romanticism: beauty of nature, supernatural creatures Realism: focus on social issues, use of everyday characters.

In this excerpt from "The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane, which phrase reflects the theme that nature is indifferent to the troubles of man? There is a certain immovable quality to a shore, andthe correspondent wondered at it amid the confusion of the sea. It seemed also very attractive, but the correspondent knew that it was a long journey, andhe paddled leisurely. The piece of life preserver lay under him, andsometimes he whirled down the incline of a wave as if he were on a hand sled.

There is a certain immovable quality to a shore

Which sentence in this excerpt from President Richard Nixon's speech "The Great Silent Majority" contains the thesis statement? Let us all understand that the question before us is not whether some Americans are for peace and some Americans are against peace. The question at issue is not whether Johnson's war becomes Nixon's war. The great question is: How can we win America's peace? Well, let us turn now to the fundamental issue: Why and how did the United States become involved in Vietnam in the first place? Fifteen years ago North Vietnam, with the logistical support of Communist China and the Soviet Union, launched a campaign to impose a Communist government on South Vietnam by instigating and supporting a revolution. In response to the request of the Government of South Vietnam, President Eisenhower sent economic aid and military equipment to assist the people of South Vietnam in their efforts to prevent a Communist takeover. Seven years ago, President Kennedy sent 16,000 military personnel to Vietnam as combat advisers. Four years ago, President Johnson sent American combat forces to South Vietnam.

Why and how did the United States become involved in Vietnam in the first place?

In "Interview with President Lincoln," Charles Farrar Browne uses a different spelling for some common words to indicate the narrator's accent and local dialect. Write the correct spellings of the underlined words in this excerpt. One patrit from a small town in Michygan went up on top the house, got into the chimney and slid into the parler where Old Abe was endeverin to keep the hungry pack of orfice-seekers from chawin him up alive without benefit of clergy. patrit = Michygan = parler = endeverin = chawin =

patriot Michigan parlor endeavoring chewing

Which four parts of this excerpt from Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat" describe the narrator's opinion of the sea as a hostile entity? A singular disadvantage of the sea lies in the fact that after successfully surmounting one wave you discover that there is another behind it just as important and just as nervously anxious to do something effective in the way of swamping boats. In a ten-foot dinghy one can get an idea of the resources of the sea in the line of waves that is not probable to the average experience, which is never at sea in a dinghy. As each slaty wall of water approached, it shut all else from the view of the men in the boat, and it was not difficult to imagine that this particular wave was the final outburst of the ocean, the last effort of the grim water.

there is another behind it just as important and just as nervously anxious to do something effective it shut all else from the view of the men this particular wave was the final outburst of the ocean, the last effort of the grim water.

Which two parts of this excerpt from Mark Twain's "The £1,000,000 Bank-Note" use hyperbole? "I may use your name! Your name--think of it! Man, they'll flock in droves, these rich Londoners; they'll fight for that stock! I'm a made man, I'm a made man forever, and I'll never forget you as long as I live!" In less than twenty-four hours London was abuzz! I hadn't anything to do, day after day, but sit at home, and say to all comers: "Yes; I told him to refer to me. I know the man, and I know the mine. His character is above reproach, and the mine is worth far more than he asks for it." Meantime I spent all my evenings at the minister's with Portia. I didn't say a word to her about the mine; I saved it for a surprise.

they'll flock in droves they'll fight for that stock