DRAFT English 254 Assessment

Part A—Critical Thinking

For questions 1-10, read the passages carefully and provide what you believe is the best answer to the question. The questions are not designed to “trick” you, but may require you to re-read all or part of the excerpts.

The following is an excerpt from Jonathan Swift’s satiric essay, A Modest Proposal. The essay’s persona advocates that Irish babies be used as a food delicacy for various social and economic reasons (which is the “proposal” referred to in the first sentence below). Read the following paragraph from the essay and provide the best answer to the questions that follow:

I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be urged, that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the Kingdom. This I freely own, and 'twas indeed one principal design in offering it to the world. I desire the reader will observe, that I calculate my remedy for this one individual kingdom of Ireland, and for no other that ever was, is, or I think, ever can be upon Earth. Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: of taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound: of using neither clothes, nor household furniture, except what is of our own growth and manufacture: of utterly rejecting the materials and instruments that promote foreign luxury: of curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in our women: of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and temerance: of learning to love our country, wherein we differ even from Laplanders, and the inhabitants of Topinamboo: of quitting our animosities, and factions, nor act any longer like the Jews, who were murdering one another at the very moment their city was taken: of being a little cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing: of teaching our landlords to have at least one degree of mercy towards their tenants. Lastly, of putting a spirit of honesty, industry, and skill into our shop-keepers, who, if a resolution could now be taken to buy only our native goods, would immediately unite to cheat and exact upon us in the price, the measure and the goodness, nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair proposal of just dealing, though often and earnestly invited to it.

1. Given that the passage is satirical, we can infer that Swift (not the persona of the essay) is advocating, among other things:
a) the expulsion of Jews from Ireland.

b) that the Irish learn to love their own country.

c) that babies would taste better with seasoning.

d) the elimination of conflicts with Laplanders.

2. Swift’s solutions to Ireland’s problems are presented in this passage by the persona as:

a) possible objections to his baby-raising scheme.

b) being thwarted by the Topinamboo.

c) primarily capitalist in their orientation.

d) the sources of civil war.

3. Toward which of these character traits does Swift seem wary:

a) pride

b) parsimony

c) prudence

d) temerance (temperance)

4. How does the persona of the essay’s opinion likely differ from Swift’s?

a) The persona feels that the Irish share some blame for their plight, whereas Swift does not.

b) There is no difference; the persona of the essay is a reflection of Swift’s opinion.

c) The persona is dismissing solutions to Ireland’s problems that Swift would likely advocate.

d) Swift would prefer not to think about the Irish, whereas they are the only thing that the persona discusses.

5. The “lessened” number of people referenced at the beginning of the paragraph refers to population reduction achieved by slaughtering babies for food. What does the tone of the paragraph, combined with such a horrific purpose, indicate about the essay’s persona?

a) He has a jolly disposition.

b) He has a violent bloodlust.

c) He has a methodical, morally bankrupt mind.

d) He is a staunch defender of the weak.

Questions 5-10 refer to the following poem:

THE APPARITION.
by John Donne

WHEN by thy scorn, O murd'ress, I am dead,
And that thou thinkst thee free
From all solicitation from me,
Then shall my ghost come to thy bed,
And thee, feign'd vestal, in worse arms shall see :
Then thy sick taper will begin to wink,
And he, whose thou art then, being tired before,
Will, if thou stir, or pinch to wake him, think
Thou call'st for more,
And, in false sleep, will from thee shrink :
And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected thou
Bathed in a cold quicksilver sweat wilt lie,
          A verier ghost than I.
What I will say, I will not tell thee now,
Lest that preserve thee ; and since my love is spent,
I'd rather thou shouldst painfully repent,
Than by my threatenings rest still innocent.

6. We can infer what sort of prior relationship between the persona and subject

of the poem?

a) fraternal

b) parental

c) angelic

d) romantic

7. The poem’s persona is:

a) Scorned and angry, but alive.

b) Scorned and angry and dead.

c) Innocent and alive.

d) Innocent and dead.

8. The persona imagines that his subject’s future lover will:

a) Try to save her from his haunting.

b) Shrink from her because he’d rather sleep.

c) Be an apparition.

d) Repent his love for her.

9. The behavior the persona imagines of himself most closely resembles that of:

a) A stalker.

b) A prisoner.

c) A fish.

d) Christ.

10. Which line from the poem best explains why the persona won’t share his message:

a) And that thou think’st thee free.

b) Thou call’st for more.

c) And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected thou

d) Lest that preserve thee;

Part B Appreciating the contributions of literature to our perceptions of ourselves and our world via English Literary History:

1. Which of the following is a feature of an epic:

a) depicts episodes important to the history of a people

b) is written in iambic pentameter

c) satires power structures

d) humiliates its principle hero

2. Which of the following is a feature of satire:

a) is written in heroic couplets

b) is written in iambic pentameter

c) uses a part to express the whole

d) uses humor and wit to improve humanity

3. Which of the following is a description of allegory:

a) extended narrative metaphor

b) iconoclastic by nature

c) uses puns extensively

d) uses humor and wit to improve humanity

4. A kenning is

a) Beowulf’s lair

b) Grendel’s lair

c) a compressed Anglo-Saxon metaphor

d) the term for Anglo-Saxon minstrels

5. An iambic pentameter line has how many syllables:

a) 5

b) 10

c) 12

d) 14

6. Which set of dates best describes the Anglo-Saxon Period?

a) 10,000-5,000 B.C.

b) 428-1100

c) 1500-1660

d) 1660-1800

7. Which set of dates best describes the medieval period

a) 1100-1500

b) 1500-1660

c) 1660-1800

d) 1800-1832

8. Which set of dates best describes the English Renaissance, or Early Modern, Period? a) 1100-1500

b) 1500-1660

c) 1660-1800

d) 1798-1832.

9. Which set of dates best describes the Restoration and Eighteenth Century?

a) 1660-1800

b) 1798-1832

c) 1832-1870

d) 1914-1965

10. The term “Restoration” in English literary history refers to

a) the order of Elizabethan England after the chaos of “Bloody Mary”

b) the sense of wholeness provided by the medieval mystics

c) the return of Charles II to England years after regicide against his father

d) the sense of futility combatted by Eliot’s The Wasteland.

11. Beowulf was originally written in

a) Modern English

b) Old Norse

c) Anglo-Saxon or Old English

d) Finnish saga language.

12. The Canterbury Tales are

a) Medieval

b) Renaissance

c) Restoration

d) Victorian.

13. Thomas More is

a) Medieval

b) Renaissance

c) Restoration

d) Victorian.

14. The Gawain-poet is

a) Medieval

b) Renaissance

c)Eighteenth Century

d) Romantic.

15. Alexander Pope is

a) Restoration and Eighteenth Century

b) Victorian

c) Medieval or

d) Renaissance.

16. An important feature of the middle ages is

a) the development of global capitalism

b) the presence of standing armies

c) manuscript culture as the prevailing mode of literacy

d) the “Age of Invention.”

17. Another important feature of the middle ages is

a) the dominance of the Catholic Church as a spiritual and political force

b) the Protestant Reformation

c) the rise of the Puritans

d) the Enlightenment.

18. An important feature of the Renaissance is

a) manuscript culture

b) the development of the printing press

c) predominately democratic states

d) global media saturation.

19. An important feature of the Renaissance is

a) the beginnings of astrology

b) the beginnings of the scientific paradigm

c) a philosophical move toward scholasticism

d) the discovery of the objective correlative.

20. Which of the following is not a value of the dominant literary climate of the Restoration and Eighteenth Century?

a) order

b) economy

c) art for art’s sake

d) reason.