Practice Test 2

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Section I

The Exam

AP ® English Literature and Composition Exam

SECTION I: Multiple-Choice Questions

DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOKLET UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO.

At a Glance

Total Time

1 hour

Number of Questions

55

Percent of Total Grade

45%

Writing Instrument

Pencil required

Instructions

Section I of this examination contains 55 multiple-choice questions. Fill in only the ovals for numbers 1 through 55 on your answer sheet.

Indicate all of your answers to the multiple-choice questions on the answer sheet. No credit will be given for anything written in this exam booklet, but you may use the booklet for notes or scratch work. After you have decided which of the suggested answers is best, completely fill in the corresponding oval on the answer sheet. Give only one answer to each question. If you change an answer, be sure that the previous mark is erased completely. Here is a sample question and answer.

Sample Question

Chicago is a

(A) state

(B) city

(C) country

(D) continent

(E) village

Sample Answer

Use your time effectively, working as quickly as you can without losing accuracy. Do not spend too much time on any one question. Go on to other questions and come back to the ones you have not answered if you have time. It is not expected that everyone will know the answers to all the multiple-choice questions.

About Guessing

Many candidates wonder whether or not to guess the answers to questions about which they are not certain. Multiple choice scores are based on the number of questions answered correctly. Points are not deducted for incorrect answers, and no points are awarded for unanswered questions. Because points are not deducted for incorrect answers, you are encouraged to answer all multiple-choice questions. On any questions you do not know the answer to, you should eliminate as many choices as you can, and then select the best answer among the remaining choices.

ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION

SECTION I

Time—1 hour

Directions: This section consists of selections from literary works and questions on their content, form, and style. After reading each passage or poem, choose the best answer to each question and then fill in the corresponding oval.

Questions 1–15 . Choose your answers to questions 1–15 based on a careful reading of the following passage.

An Invective Against Enemies of Poetry With the enemies of poetry I care not if I have a bout, and those are they that term our best writers but babbling ballad-makers, holding them fantastical fools, that have wit but cannot tell how to use it. I myself have been so censured among some dull-headed divines, who deem it no more cunning to write an exquisite poem than to preach pure Calvin or distill the juice of a commentary in a quarter sermon. Prove it when you will, you slow-spirited Saturnists, that have nothing but the pilferies of your pen to polish an exhortation withal; no eloquence but tautologies to tie the ears of your auditory unto you; no invention but “here it is to be noted, I stole this note out of Beza or Marlorat”; no wit to move, no passion to urge, but only an ordinary form of preaching, blown up by use of often hearing and speaking; and you shall find there goes more exquisite pains and purity of wit to the writing of one such rare poem as “Rosamund” than to a hundred of your dunstical sermons. Should we (as you) borrow all out of others, and gather nothing of ourselves our names should be baffuld on every bookseller’s stall, and not a chandler’s mustard pot but would
wipe his mouth with our waste paper. “New herrings, new!” we must cry, every time we make ourselves public, or else we shall be christened with a hundred new titles of idiotism. Nor is poetry an art whereof there is no use in a man’s whole life but to describe discontented thoughts and youthful desires; for there is no study but it doth illustrate and beautify. To them that demand what fruits the poets of our time bring forth, or wherein they are able to prove themselves necessary to the state, thus I answer: first and foremost, they have cleansed our language from barbarism and made the vulgar sort here in London (which is the fountain whose rivers flow round about England) to aspire to a richer purity of speech than is communicated with the commonality of any nation under heaven. The virtuous by their praises they encourage to be more virtuous; to vicious men they are as infernal hags to haunt their ghosts with eternal infamy after death. The soldier, in hope to have his high deeds celebrated by their pens, despiseth a whole army of perils, and acteth wonders exceeding all human conjecture. Those that care neither for God nor the devil, by their quills are kept in awe. Let God see what he will, they would be loath to have the shame of the world. What age will not praise immortal
Sir Philip Sidney, whom noble Salustius (that thrice singular French poet) hath famoused; together with Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, and merry Sir Thomas More, for the chief pillars of our English speech. Not so much but Chaucer’s host, Bailly in Southwark, and his wife of Bath he keeps such a stir with, in his Canterbury Tales, shall be talked of whilst the Bath is used, or there be ever a bad house in Southwark. Gentles, it is not your lay chronographers, that write of nothing but of mayors and sheriffs and the dear year and the great frost, that can endow your names with never-dated glory; for they want the wings of choice words to fly to heaven, which we have; they cannot sweeten a discourse, or wrest admiration from men reading, as we can, reporting the meanest accident. Poetry is the honey of all flowers, the quintessence of all sciences, the marrow of wit and the very phrase of angels. How much better is it, then, to have an elegant lawyer to plead one’s cause, than a stuttering townsman that loseth himself in his tale and doth nothing but make legs; so much it is better for a nobleman or gentleman to have his honor’s story related, and his deeds emblazoned, by a poet, than a citizen. —Thomas Nashe

1. In the first paragraph, preachers are accused of all the following EXCEPT

(A) plagiarism

(B) stupidity

(C) dullness

(D) eloquence

(E) laziness

2. “Saturnist” (line 8) means

(A) astrologer

(B) nymphomaniac

(C) depressed and depressing person

(D) pagan

(E) foolishly optimistic person

3. What are “divines” (line 5)?

(A) Preachers

(B) Great writers

(C) Dead writers

(D) Fools

(E) Saturnists

4. “New herrings, new!” (line 21)

(A) refers to an implied comparison between the writers of new poems and the sellers of fresh fish

(B) suggests that poetry is slippery and hard to catch the meaning of, like fish

(C) implies that poetry is just another commodity

(D) implies that poetry grows stale rapidly, like fish

(E) compares poetry to rotten fish

5. In lines 29–34 London is described as

(A) flooded

(B) a damp, rainy city

(C) the main influence on the English language

(D) a cultural garden

(E) an important port city

6. The main idea of lines 34–40 is which of the following?

(A) People are motivated by concern for their reputations.

(B) Poetry is fair to the virtuous and the evil alike.

(C) Poetry is inspirational.

(D) Poetry is most attractive to atheists.

(E) Poets are very judgmental.

7. Who is Salustius (line 43)?

(A) A French poet

(B) Sidney’s nom de plume

(C) The Roman god of poetry

(D) The King of England

(E) The Wife of Bath

8. As it is referred to in line 49, what is Bath?

(A) A state of sin

(B) A character in Chaucer

(C) A married man

(D) A poet

(E) A town and spa in England

9. In the last paragraph, poets are said to be like

(A) lawyers

(B) mayors

(C) chronographers

(D) townsmen

(E) angels

10. Line 9 is an example of

(A) metaphor

(B) onomatopoeia

(C) paradox

(D) alliteration

(E) apostrophe

11. In line 2, what is the referent of “those”?

(A) Poets

(B) The author

(C) Ballads

(D) Poems

(E) Poetry’s enemies

12. Lines 18–23 argue that

(A) poets must take second jobs to make a living

(B) most people don’t respect poets

(C) there are too many poets

(D) poets have to work hard to present consistently fresh material

(E) poetry books are never bestsellers

13. The author complains (lines 10–11) that the preachers have no eloquence to hold their audience but only

(A) repetition

(B) nonsense

(C) lies

(D) irrelevance

(E) sermons

14. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT a function of poetry?

(A) To encourage the virtuous

(B) To purify the language

(C) To embarrass the villainous

(D) To illustrate and beautify

(E) To plagiarize sermons

15. Who first raised the issue of necessity of poetry to the state?

(A) Nashe

(B) Sidney

(C) Salustius

(D) Plato

(E) Milton

Questions 16–28 . Choose answers to questions 16–28 based on a careful reading of the following poem by John Donne.

Let me pour forth My tears before thy face whilst I stay here, For thy face coins them, and thy stamp they bear, And by this mintage they are something worth, For thus they be Pregnant of thee; Fruits of much grief they are, emblems of more— When a tear falls, that Thou falls which it bore, So thou and I are nothing then, when on a diverse shore. On a round ball A workman that hath copies by can lay An Europe, Africa, and an Asia, And quickly make that, which was nothing, all; So doth each tear Which thee doth wear, A globe, yea world, by that impression grow, Till thy tears mixed with mine do overflow This world; by waters sent from thee, my heaven disolv’d so. O more than moon, Draw not up seas to drown me in thy sphere;
Weep me not dead in thine arms, but forbear To teach the sea what it may do too soon. Let not the wind Example find To do me more harm than it purposeth; Since thou and I sigh one another’s breath, Whoe’er sighs most is cruelest, and hastes the other’s death.

16. The situation described in this poem is

(A) the end of a romantic relationship

(B) death

(C) the separation of lovers

(D) the end of the world

(E) a pleasure cruise

17. Lines 10–16 are an example of

(A) paradox

(B) dramatic irony

(C) metaphor

(D) metaphysical conceit

(E) dramatic monologue

18. Line 19 is an address to the

(A) moon

(B) world

(C) poet’s soul

(D) workmen

(E) beloved

19. To what do lines 14 and 15 refer?

I. The speaker’s tears which reflect the beloved

II. The beloved’s tears

III. The beloved’s clothing, which has been torn as a symbol of her grief

(A) I

(B) I and II

(C) I and III

(D) II and III

(E) All of the above

20. Which of the stanzas do NOT include images of roundness?

(A) Stanza 1

(B) Stanza 2

(C) Stanza 3

(D) Stanzas 1 and 3

(E) None: All of the stanzas contain images of roundness.

21. The imagery in this poem can most accurately be described as sustained images of

(A) worthlessness suggesting the hopelessness of the lovers’ situation

(B) the globe suggesting the vast distances of the lovers’ separation

(C) roundness suggesting a perfect circle, and therefore the cosmic and permanent union of the lovers

(D) water suggesting the shifting faithlessness of the lovers

(E) water suggesting the bond between the lovers

22. In line 13, to what does the word “which” refer?

(A) Copies

(B) The round ball

(C) The world

(D) The workman

(E) The continents

23. Which of the following is NOT an appropriate association for lines 19–20?

(A) The power of a goddess

(B) The relationship between the moon and the ocean’s tides

(C) The round shape of the moon

(D) The folktale of the man in the moon

(E) The moon as suggestive of unhappy feelings, the opposite of “sunny disposition”

24. What does “diverse shore” (line 9) mean?

(A) Heaven

(B) Hell

(C) Europe

(D) A different place

(E) The ground

25. Which of the following types of imagery is sustained throughout the poem?

(A) Tears

(B) Globes

(C) Coins

(D) Moon

(E) Ocean

26. Line 4 can best be paraphrased as

(A) you are not worth the salt of my tears

(B) my tears are worth something because they reflect your face

(C) my tears are emotionally refreshing

(D) my tears are worth something because they are for your sake

(E) my grief is a valuable feeling

27. What does the speaker ascribe to his beloved in lines 20–25?

(A) The power to break his heart

(B) The power to kill him

(C) The power to influence the natural elements

(D) The power to restrain her grief

(E) The right to seek other lovers

28. In the extended metaphors of this poem, the speaker flatters the beloved through the use of

(A) hyperbole

(B) sarcasm

(C) irony

(D) parallelism

(E) eschatology

Questions 29–39 . Choose answers to questions 29–39 based on a careful reading of the passage below. The passage, an excerpt from a short story by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, describes a woman about to be married after a long engagement.

Every morning, rising and going about among her neat maidenly possessions, she felt as one looking her last upon the faces of dear friends. It was true that in a measure she could take them with her, but, robbed of their old environments, they would appear in such new guises that they would almost cease to be themselves. Then there were some peculiar features of her happy solitary life which she would probably be obliged to relinquish altogether. Sterner tasks than these graceful but half-needless ones would probably devolve upon her. There would be a large house to care for; there would be company to entertain; there would be Joe’s rigours and feeble old mother to wait upon; and it would be contrary to all thrifty village traditions for her to keep more than one servant. Louisa had a little still, and she used to occupy herself pleasantly in summer weather with distilling the sweet and aromatic essences from roses and peppermint and spearmint. By-and-by her still must be laid away. Her store of essences was already considerable, and there would be no time for her to distil for the mere pleasure of it. Then Joe’s mother would think it foolishness; she had already hinted her opinion in the matter. Louisa dearly loved to sew a linen seam, not always for use, but for the simple,
mild pleasure which she took in it. She would have been loath to confess how more than once she had ripped a seam for the mere delight of sewing it together again. Sitting at her window during long sweet afternoons, drawing her needle gently through the dainty fabric, she was peace itself. But there was small chance of such foolish comfort in the future. Joe’s mother, domineering, shrewd old matron that she was even in her old age, and very likely even Joe himself, with his honest masculine rudeness, would laugh and frown down all these pretty but senseless old maiden ways. Louisa had almost the enthusiasm of an artist over the mere order and cleanliness of her solitary home. She had throbs of genuine triumph at the sight of the window-panes which she had polished until they shone like jewels. She gloated gently over her orderly bureau-drawers, with their exquisitely folded contents redolent with lavender and sweet clover and purity. Could she be sure of the endurance of even this? She had visions, so startling that she half repudiated them as indelicate, of coarse masculine belongings strewn about in endless litter; of dust and disorder arising necessarily from a coarse masculine presence in the midst of all this delicate harmony.
Among her forebodings of disturbance, not the least was with regard to Caesar. Caesar was a veritable hermit of a dog. For the greater part of his life he had dwelt in his secluded hut, shut out from the society of his kind and all innocent canine joys. Never had Caesar since his early youth watched at a woodchuck’s hole; never had he known the delights of a stray bone at a neighbor’s kitchen door. And it was all on account of a sin committed when hardly out of his puppyhood. No one knew the possible depth of remorse of which this mild-visaged, altogether innocent-looking old dog might be capable; but whether or not he had encountered remorse, he had encountered a full measure of righteous retribution. Old Caesar seldom lifted up his voice in a growl or a bark; he was fat and sleepy; there were yellow rings which looked like spectacles around his dim old eyes; but there was a neighbor who bore on his hand the imprint of several of Caesar’s sharp white youthful teeth, and for that he had lived at the end of a chain, all alone in a little hut, for fourteen years. The neighbor, who was choleric and smarting with the pain of his wound, had demanded either Caesar’s death or complete ostracism. So Louisa’s brother, to whom the dog had belonged, had built him his
little kennel and tied him up. It was now fourteen years since, in a flood of youthful spirits, he had inflicted that memorable bite and with the exception of short excursions, always at the end of the chain, under the strict guardianship of his master or Louisa, the old dog had remained a close prisoner. It is doubtful if, with his limited ambition, he took much pride in the fact, but it is certain that he was possessed of considerable cheap fame. He was regarded by all the children in the village and by many adults as a very monster of ferocity. Mothers charged their children with solemn emphasis not to go too near him, and the children listened and believed greedily, with a fascinated appetite for terror, and ran by Louisa’s house stealthily, with many sidelong and backward glances at the terrible dog. If perchance he sounded a hoarse bark, there was a panic. Wayfarers chancing into Louisa’s yard eyed him with respect, and inquired if the chain were stout. Caesar at large might have seemed a very ordinary dog, and excited no comment whatever; chained, his reputation overshadowed him, so that he lost his own proper outlines and looked darkly vague and enormous. Joe, however, with his good-humored sense and shrewdness, saw him as he was. He strode valiantly up
to him and patted him on the head, in spite of Louisa’s soft clamor of warning, and even attempted to set him loose. Louisa grew so alarmed that he desisted, but kept announcing his opinion in the matter quite forcibly at intervals. “There ain’t a better-natured dog in town,” he would say, “and it’s downright cruel to keep him tied up there. Some day I’m going to take him out.” Louisa had very little hope that he would not, one of these days, when their interests and possessions should be more completely fused in one. She pictured to herself Caesar on the rampage through the quiet and unguarded village. She saw innocent children bleeding in his path. She was herself very fond of the old dog, because he had belonged to her dead brother, and he was always very gentle with her; still she had great faith in his ferocity. She always warned people not to go too near him. She fed him on ascetic fare of corn-mush and cakes, and never fired his dangerous temper with heating and sanguinary diet of flesh and bones. Louisa looked at the old dog munching his simple fare, and thought of her approaching marriage and trembled.

29. In overall terms, how is Louisa characterized?

(A) As a bitter, domineering woman

(B) As a naive, childish woman

(C) As a frightened, foolish woman

(D) As a sheltered, innocent woman

(E) As a selfish, cruel woman

30. Which statement best describes Louisa’s household activities (paragraphs 1 and 2)?

(A) They symbolize the timeless rituals of ancient rural harvest deities.

(B) They demonstrate Louisa’s contented absorption in a traditionally feminine cultural sphere.

(C) They demonstrate Louisa’s mental illness.

(D) They demonstrate Louisa’s repressed artistic genius.

(E) They describe the highest traditional values of Louisa’s town.

31. Which of the following statements are TRUE?

The story of Caesar is used in this passage to reinforce the idea that

I. Louisa has grown too accustomed to her circumscribed life to welcome change

II. cruelty to animals is an indicator of a cruel society

III. marrying is like being conquered by an invading emperor

IV. people can be trapped by unchanging and unexamined ideas

(A) I and IV only

(B) I, II, and III only

(C) IV only

(D) All of the above

(E) None of the above

32. Caesar’s “ascetic” diet (paragraph 4)

(A) reflects Louisa’s poverty

(B) is part of his punishment

(C) reflects a nineteenth-century theory that bodily humors are affected by diet and can change disposition

(D) is part of a religious practice meant to encourage celibacy in hermits

(E) is typical pet food in nineteenth-century homes

33. The word “purity” in line 39 is an example of

(A) irony

(B) metaphor

(C) simile

(D) oxymoron

(E) allusion

34. The tone of the description of Caesar (paragraphs 3 and 4) is

(A) gently satirical

(B) indignant

(C) pensive

(D) foreboding

(E) menacing

35. In context, the word “sanguinary” (line 106) most nearly means

(A) expensive

(B) feminine

(C) masculine

(D) vegetarian

(E) bloody

36. Judging from this passage, which of the following best describes Louisa’s beliefs about gender relations?

(A) Men and women naturally belong together.

(B) Men and women should remain separate.

(C) Men bring chaos and possibly danger to women’s lives.

(D) Women help to civilize men’s natural wildness.

(E) Men are more intelligent than women.

37. In line 41, how is the word “indelicate” used?

(A) To indicate the differences between Louisa and Joe

(B) To indicate that Louisa considered her thoughts inappropriately sexual

(C) To indicate the coarseness of Joe’s personality

(D) To indicate the inferior quality of Joe’s belongings

(E) To foreshadow the vision of Caesar’s rampage

38. Which of the following are accomplished by the Caesar vignette?

(A) It shows us Joe’s down-to-earth, kindhearted character.

(B) It symbolically shows us Louisa’s fears of the future.

(C) It serves as a symbol of what happens to those who refuse change.

(D) It provides a humorous satire of small-town concerns.

(E) All of the above

39. In context, “mild-visaged” (line 54) most nearly means

(A) having a calm temper

(B) having a gentle face

(C) having an old face

(D) being confused

(E) having a kind mask

Questions 40–55 . Read the poem below, entitled “Thou art not lovelier than lilacs—no” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, then choose answers to the questions that follow.

THOU are not lovelier than lilacs,—no, Nor honeysuckle; thou are not more fair Than small white single poppies,—I can bear Thy beauty; though I bend before thee, though From left to right, not knowing where to go, I turn my troubled eyes, nor here nor there Find any refuge from thee, yet I swear So has it been with mist,—with moonlight so. Like him who day by day unto his draught Of delicate poison adds him one drop more Till he may drink unharmed the death of ten, Even so, inured to beauty, who have quaffed Each hour more deeply than the hour before, I drink—and live—what has destroyed some men.

40. The poem is best described as

(A) a Shakespearean sonnet

(B) a Petrarchan sonnet

(C) a sestina

(D) a ballad

(E) an ode

41. The speaker’s attitude toward the subject’s beauty is all of the following EXCEPT

(A) critical

(B) tolerant

(C) assertive

(D) perplexed

(E) insouciant

42. In line 10, “delicate poison” is a good example of

(A) paradox

(B) juxtaposition

(C) oxymoron

(D) truism

(E) metaphor

43. The subject of the verb “adds” in line 10 is

(A) him (line 9)

(B) who (line 9)

(C) poison (line 10)

(D) he (line 11)

(E) I (line 14)

44. Which of the following best describes the tone of the poem?

(A) Admonishing

(B) Apologetic

(C) Ironic

(D) Sentimental

(E) Sincere

45. What is the most important thematic point made in lines 1–8 of the poem?

(A) The speaker cannot escape the subject.

(B) The speaker believes nothing is more beautiful than flowers.

(C) The speaker finds nature troublesome.

(D) The speaker relegates the subject’s beauty but recognizes its power over him.

(E) The speaker desires a refuge.

46. The poem is notable for its use of all of the following EXCEPT

(A) alliteration

(B) enjambment

(C) iambic meter

(D) refrain

(E) metaphor

47. The speaker conveys in lines 6–8 that the subject’s beauty is

(A) ethereal

(B) enveloping

(C) insignificant

(D) superficial

(E) exasperating

48. In context, “inured” (line 12) most nearly means

(A) hurt

(B) drunk

(C) conditioned

(D) enamored

(E) drawn

49. In line 8, “it” refers to

(A) “THOU” (line 1)

(B) “honeysuckle” (line 2)

(C) “Thy beauty” (line 4)

(D) “thee” (line 4)

(E) “Find any refuge” (line 7)

50. The function of line 14 is best described by which statement?

(A) The verb “drink” emphasizes the bacchanalian nature of some men.

(B) It contains the subject of the sentence.

(C) The verb “destroyed” emphasizes the secret desire of the speaker.

(D) Its use of punctuation underscores the speaker’s desire to live.

(E) The verb “live” demonstrates the physical superiority of the speaker.

51. In line 9, the poem shifts from

(A) the speaker feeling engulfed by the subject’s beauty to developing immunity from it

(B) the speaker admiring the subject’s beauty to wanting to destroy it

(C) the speaker being enamored with nature to wanting to poison it

(D) the speaker criticizing the subject’s beauty to disdaining it

(E) the speaker giving in to desire to trying to resist it

52. How does the first line of this poem function?

I. It sets up a comparison.

II. The reference to lilacs makes this poem a pastoral poem.

III. It establishes the initial tone.

IV. It states the theme of the poem.

(A) I only

(B) I and III only

(C) II and IV only

(D) I, III, and IV only

(E) All of the above

53. Lines 12–14 of the poem function as

(A) a metaphor

(B) an allusion

(C) personification

(D) a non sequitur

(E) a metonym

54. Which of the following is true of the rhyme scheme in the second stanza?

(A) Rhyme is abandoned in the second stanza.

(B) The final words of lines 9–11 are the basis for the rhyme scheme in the second stanza.

(C) Line 14 completes a couplet.

(D) The rhyme scheme is abba.

(E) Lines 9–12 repeat the rhymes established in lines 5–8.

55. What is the speaker’s meaning in lines 10–11?

(A) The speaker is developing an immunity to poison.

(B) The speaker wants to protect the subject from harm.

(C) The speaker is proving his strength over poison.

(D) The speaker is building a tolerance to the subject’s beauty.

(E) The speaker can drink more than other men.

STOP

END OF SECTION I

IF YOU FINISH BEFORE TIME IS CALLED, YOU MAY CHECK YOUR WORK ON THIS SECTION.

DO NOT GO ON TO SECTION II UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO.

ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION

SECTION II

Time—2 hour

Question 1

(Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay score.)

The passage that follows is from “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892), which is regarded as an early feminist work in American literature. Read the passage carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you characterize the narrator’s attitude toward and interaction with her surroundings. In your essay, analyze the literary techniques the author uses to portray the narrator and her attitude toward her environment. Be sure to include specific references to the passage.

The wallpaper, as I said before, is torn off in spots, and it sticketh closer than a brother—they must have had perseverance as well as hatred. Then the floor is scratched and gouged and splintered, the plaster itself is dug out here and there, and this great heavy bed which is all we found in the room, looks as if it had been through the wars. But I don’t mind a bit—only the paper. There comes John’s sister. Such a dear girl as she is, and so careful of me! I must not let her find me writing. She is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession. I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which made me sick! But I can write when she is out, and see her a long way off from these windows. There is one that commands the road, a lovely, shaded, winding road, and one that just looks off over the country. A lovely country, too, full of great elms and velvet meadows. This wallpaper has a certain kind of sub-pattern in a different shade, a particularly irritating one, for you can only see it in certain lights, and not clearly then. 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 about behind that silly and conspicuous front design. There’s sister on the stairs! Well, the Fourth of July is over! The people are gone and I am tired out. John thought it might do me good to see a little company, so we just had mother and Nellie and the children down for a week. Of course I didn’t do a thing. Jennie sees to everything now. But it tired me all the same. John says if I don’t pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall. But I don’t want to go there at all. I had a friend who was in his hands once, and she says he is just like John and my brother, only more so! Besides, it is such an undertaking to go so far. I don’t feel as if it was worth while to turn my hand over for anything, and I’m getting dreadfully fretful and querulous. I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time. Of course I don’t when John is here, or anybody else, but when I am alone. And I am alone a good deal just now. John is kept in town very often by serious cases, and Jennie is good and lets
me alone when I want her to. So I walk a little in the garden or down that lovely lane, sit on the porch under the roses, and lie down up here a good deal. I’m getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper. It dwells in my mind so! I lie here on this great immovable bed—it is nailed down, I believe—and follow that pattern about by the hour. It is as good as gymnastics, I assure you. I start, we’ll say, at the bottom, down in the corner over there where it has not been touched, and I determine for the thousandth time that I will follow that pointless pattern to some sort of a conclusion. I know a little of the principles of design, and I know this thing was not arranged on any laws of radiation, or alternation, or repetition, or symmetry, or anything else that I ever heard of. It is repeated, of course, by the breadths, but not otherwise. 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. But, on the other hand, they connect diagonally, and the
sprawling outlines run off in great slanting waves of optic horror, like a lot of wallowing seaweeds in full chase. The whole thing goes horizontally, too, at least it seems so, and I exhaust myself in trying to distinguish the order of its going in that direction. They have used a horizontal breadth for a frieze, and that adds wonderfully to the confusion. There is one end of the room where it is almost intact, and there, when the cross-lights fade and the low sun shines directly upon it, I can almost fancy radiation, after all,––the interminable grotesques seem to form around a common center and rush off in head-long plunges of equal distraction. It makes me tired to follow it. I will take a nap, I guess. I don’t know why I should write this. I don’t want to. I don’t feel able. And I know John would think it absurd. But I must say what I feel and think in some way—it is such a relief! But the effort is getting to be greater than the relief.

Question 2

(Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay score.)

Read the following poem carefully. Considering such literary elements as style, tone, and diction, write a well-organized essay that examines the poem’s view of warfare.

Does It Matter? Does it matter?—losing your legs?…For people will always be kind, And you need not show that you mind When the others come in after hunting To gobble their muffins and eggs. Does it matter?—losing your sight?…There’s such splendid work for the blind; And people will always be kind, As you sit on the terrace remembering And turning your face to the light. Do they matter?—those dreams from the pit?…You can drink and forget and be glad, And people won’t say that you’re mad; For they’ll know you’ve fought for your country And no one will worry a bit. —Siegfried Sassoon

Question 3

(Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay score.)

In some works of literature, mothers or the concept of motherhood play central roles. Choose a novel or play of literary merit and write a well-organized essay in which you discuss the maternal interaction between two characters and how that relationship relates to a larger theme represented by the work.

You may select a work from the list below, or you may choose to write about another work of comparable literary merit.

A Doll’s House

The Awakening

As I Lay Dying

Beloved

Black Rain

Bleak House

The Color Purple

Daniel Deronda

Dombey and Son

Fifth Business

The Glass Menagerie

Hamlet

The Joy Luck Club

Medea

Mrs. Warren’s Profession

A Room with a View

Pedro Paramo

Pride and Prejudice

The Scarlet Letter

The Seagull

Sons and Lovers

The Sound and the Fury

The Stranger

To the Lighthouse

STOP

END OF EXAM

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