SAT Literature: Characterization and Motivation

This is an MCQ-quiz for SAT Literature, which include questions on characterization and motivation.

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1 "So careful of the type?" but no.  2 From scarped cliff and quarried stone  3 She cries, `A thousand types are gone:  4 I care for nothing, all shall go.    5 "Thou makest thine appeal to me:  6 I bring to life, I bring to death:  7 The spirit does but mean the breath:  8 I know no more." And he, shall he,    9 Man, her last work, who seem"d so fair,  10 Such splendid purpose in his eyes,  11 Who roll"d the psalm to wintry skies,  12 Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer,    13 Who trusted God was love indeed  14 And love Creation"s final law—  15 Tho" Nature, red in tooth and claw  16 With ravine, shriek"d against his creed—    17 Who loved, who suffer"d countless ills,  18 Who battled for the True, the Just,  19 Be blown about the desert dust,  20 Or seal"d within the iron hills?    21 No more? A monster then, a dream,  22 A discord. Dragons of the prime,  23 That tare each other in their slime,  24 Were mellow music match"d with him.    25 O life as futile, then, as frail!  26 O for thy voice to soothe and bless!  27 What hope of answer, or redress?  28 Behind the veil, behind the veil. (1849) Answer the following with the best possible answer: Throughout this excerpt, the poet experiences a/an __________.

questioning of faith agonizing death of a loved one disappearing trust in science lessening of hope reviving hope

I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.(5) My tongue, every atom of my blood, form"d from this soil, this air, Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same, I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, Hoping to cease not till death. What central impression does the speaker give about himself in this passage?

Lethargy Vitality Conspiracy Lassitude Stinginess

1 Why did I laugh tonight? No voice will tell: No god, no demon of severe response, Deigns to reply from heaven or from hell. Then to my human heart I turn at once--5 Heart! Thou and I are here sad and alone; Say, wherefore did I laugh? O mortal pain! O darkness! darkness! ever must I moan, To question heaven and hell and heart in vain! 9 Why did I laugh? I know this being"s lease-- My fancy to its utmost blisses spreads: Yet could I on this very midnight cease, And the world"s gaudy ensigns see in shreds.13 Verse, fame, and beauty are intense indeed, But death intenser--death is life"s high meed. (1819) The speaker finds his laughter strange and absurd because of _______________.

the emptiness of his worldly accomplishments the inevitability of death his constant unhappiness the impossibility of understanding his heart the silence of both god and demons

Adapted from "The Mouse’s Petition" in Poems by Anna Letitia Barbauld (1773) Found in the trap where he had been confined all night by Dr. Priestley, for the sake of making experiments with different kinds of air “To spare the humbled, and to tame in war the proud.” - Virgil OH! hear a pensive captive"s prayer,For liberty that sighs;And never let thine heart be shutAgainst the prisoner"s cries. For here forlorn and sad I sit, Within the wiry grate;And tremble at th" approaching morn, Which brings impending fate. If e"er thy breast with freedom glow"d,And spurn"d a tyrant"s chain,Let not thy strong oppressive forceA free-born mouse detain.Oh! do not stain with guiltless bloodThy hospitable hearth;Nor triumph that thy wiles betray"dA prize so little worth.The scatter"d gleanings of a feastMy scanty meals supply;But if thine unrelenting heartThat slender boon deny, The cheerful light, the vital air,Are blessings widely given;Let nature"s commoners enjoyThe common gifts of heaven.The well-taught philosophic mindTo all compassion gives;Casts round the world an equal eye,And feels for all that lives.If mind, as ancient sages taught,A never dying flame,Still shifts thro" matter"s varying forms,In every form the same,Beware, lest in the worm you crushA brother"s soul you find;And tremble lest thy luckless handDislodge a kindred mind. Or, if this transient gleam of dayBe all of life we share,Let pity plead within thy breast,That little all to spare.So may thy hospitable boardWith health and peace be crown"d;And every charm of heartfelt easeBeneath thy roof be found.So when unseen destruction lurks,Which men like mice may share,May some kind angel clear thy path,And break the hidden snare. Which of the following is the best example of anti-science bias in the passage?

Throughout the poem, the mouse is figured as a thoughtful, sentient being with mental traits equal to those of humans, which is clearly scientifically inaccurate. The poet's characterization of Dr. Priestley as In the note preceding the poem, the author specifically mentions The poet's invocation of The poet's characterization of the

Adapted from “Solitary Death, make me thine own” in Underneath the Bough: A Book of Verses by Michael Field (pseudonym of Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper) (1893) Solitary Death, make me thine own, And let us wander the bare fields together; Yea, thou and I alone Roving in unembittered unison forever. I will not harry thy treasure-graves, I do not ask thy still hands a lover; My heart within me craves To travel till we twain Time’s wilderness discover. To sojourn with thee my soul was bred, And I, the courtly sights of life refusing, To the wide shadows fled, And mused upon thee often as I fell a-musing. Escaped from chaos, thy mother Night, In her maiden breast a burthen that awed her, By cavern waters white Drew thee her first-born, her unfathered off-spring toward her. On dewey plats, near twilight dingle, She oft, to still thee from men’s sobs and curses In thine ears a-tingle, Pours her cool charms, her weird, reviving chaunt rehearses. Though mortals menace thee or elude, And from thy confines break in swift transgression. Thou for thyself art sued Of me, I claim thy cloudy purlieus my possession. To a long freshwater, where the sea Stirs the silver flux of the reeds and willows, Come thou, and beckon me To lie in the lull of the sand-sequestered billows: Then take the life I have called my own And to the liquid universe deliver; Loosening my spirit’s zone, Wrap round me as thy limbs the wind, the light, the river. In the poem, “Death” is personified as which of the following?

A long-desired companion A mother The captain of a ship A lover A thief

Adapted from “Solitary Death, make me thine own” in Underneath the Bough: A Book of Verses by Michael Field (pseudonym of Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper) (1893) Solitary Death, make me thine own, And let us wander the bare fields together; Yea, thou and I alone Roving in unembittered unison forever. I will not harry thy treasure-graves, I do not ask thy still hands a lover; My heart within me craves To travel till we twain Time’s wilderness discover. To sojourn with thee my soul was bred, And I, the courtly sights of life refusing, To the wide shadows fled, And mused upon thee often as I fell a-musing. Escaped from chaos, thy mother Night, In her maiden breast a burthen that awed her, By cavern waters white Drew thee her first-born, her unfathered off-spring toward her. On dewey plats, near twilight dingle, She oft, to still thee from men’s sobs and curses In thine ears a-tingle, Pours her cool charms, her weird, reviving chaunt rehearses. Though mortals menace thee or elude, And from thy confines break in swift transgression. Thou for thyself art sued Of me, I claim thy cloudy purlieus my possession. To a long freshwater, where the sea Stirs the silver flux of the reeds and willows, Come thou, and beckon me To lie in the lull of the sand-sequestered billows: Then take the life I have called my own And to the liquid universe deliver; Loosening my spirit’s zone, Wrap round me as thy limbs the wind, the light, the river. "Night” is characterized in relation to “Death” as which of the following?

A marginalized, obsolete being A paternal, patriarchal figure with a close, reassuring relationship to Death A maternal, matriarchal figure with a close, reassuring relationship to Death An innocent maiden who helps Death, unaware of Death’s actions against mortal beings A maternal, matriarchal figure with a stifling amount of control over Death’s actions

Adapted from "Old Man Traveling" by William Wordsworth in Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798 ed.) The little hedge-row birds,That peck along the road, regard him not.He travels on, and in his face, his step,His gait, is one expression; every limb,His look and bending figure, all bespeakA man who does not move with pain, but movesWith thought—He is insensibly subduedTo settled quiet: he is one by whomAll effort seems forgotten, one to whomLong patience has such mild composure given,That patience now doth seem a thing, of whichHe hath no need. He is by nature ledTo peace so perfect, that the young beholdWith envy, what the old man hardly feels.—I asked him whither he was bound, and whatThe object of his journey; he replied"Sir! I am going many miles to take"A last leave of my son, a mariner,"Who from a sea-fight has been brought to Falmouth,And there is dying in an hospital." We could describe the man"s response to the speaker as __________.

derisive indefatigable frank unhinged suspicious

Adapted from Life and Remains of John Clare "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" by John Clare (1872, ed. J. L. Cherry) I am! Yet what I am who cares, or knows?My friends forsake me, like a memory lost.I am the self-consumer of my woes,They rise and vanish, an oblivious host,Shadows of life, whose very soul is lost.And yet I am—I live—though I am toss"d Into the nothingness of scorn and noise.Into the living sea of waking dream,Where there is neither sense of life, nor joys,But the huge shipwreck of my own esteemAnd all that"s dear. Even those I loved the bestAre strange—nay, they are stranger than the rest. I long for scenes where man has never trod—For scenes where woman never smiled or wept—There to abide with my Creator, God,And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,Full of high thoughts, unborn. So let me lie,The grass below; above, the vaulted sky. How does the narrator feel about his or her closest friends?

The narrator feels estranged from them The narrator feels unrestrained by them The narrator feels belittled by them The narrator feels diffident towards them The narrator feels supported by them

1 Devouring time, blunt thou the lion"s paws,
2 And Make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
3 Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger"s jaws,
4 And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood;
5 Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet"st
6 And do whate"er thou wilt, swift-footed time,
7 To the wide world and all her fading sweets;
8 But I forbid thee one most heinous crime,
9 O carve not with thy hours my love"s fair brow,
10 Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen.
11 Him in thy course untainted do allow,
12 For yet beauty"s pattern to succeeding men.
13 Yet do thy worst, old time; despite thy wrong,
14 My love shall in my verse ever live young.

(1609)

What "crime" is the poet forbidding time to commit?

Killing the poet

None of the answers

Causing the poet's lover to age

Speeding up time

Causing the poet to eventually forget some of his memories

… Sir, ’twas not
Her husband’s presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek… She had
A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er    (5)
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule    (10)
She rode with round the terrace—all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
Or blush, at least. She thanked men—good! but thanked
Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name    (15)
With anybody’s gift.
(1842)

Who is the speaker in relation to the Duchess?