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English 11
Second Semester Final Exam Review
1. What are the basic ideas of Transcendentalism?
2. What was Emerson’s general attitude toward society?
3. According to Emerson, the “hobgoblin of little minds” is a
4. Explain Emerson’s quote,“Trust thyself: Every heart vibrates to that iron string”.
5. What is Emerson’s philosophy in “Self-Reliance”?
6. Paraphrase the following metaphor, “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us.”
7. Thoreau’s purpose in “Civil Disobedience” is to persuade people to do what?
8. Which of Thoreau’s main beliefs is expressed in this passage from Walden?
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let
him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away.”
9. What does Thoreau hope to convey with the description of the path his feet had worn to the pondside?
10. “That government is best which governs not at all” from “Civil Disobedience” is an example of what?
11. What is an important similarity between Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson?
12. Describe Walt Whitman’s style.
13. What is the Whitman’s attitude toward nature as expressed in the passage from “Song of Myself”?
“The sharp-hoof’d mouse of the north, the cat on the house sill, the chickadee, the prairie dog…
I see in them and myself the same old law.”
14. What can you conclude about Whitman’s attitude about himself from these lines from “Song of Myself”?
I celebrate myself, and sing myself, / And what I assume you shall assume, / For every atom belonging to me
as good belongs to you.
15. Dickinson’s poetry is noted for its emphasis on what?
16. In the following stanza from “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died -,” which words create slant rhyme?
“I heard a Fly buzz – when I died - / The stillness in the room / Was like the Stillness in the Air - /
Between the Heaves of Storm –“
17. Who traveled the country and wanted everyone to read his/her poetry?
18. Who rarely left home and didn’t show many people his/her poetry?
19. Who wrote the following lines of poetry?
Under the arching heavens of the afternoon swift passing, and the voices of children and women,
The many-moving sea-tides, and I saw the ships how they sail’d,
20. Who wrote the following lines of poetry, “
Light laughs the breeze
In her Castle above them—
Babbles the Bee in a stolid Ear,
Pipe the Sweet Birds in ignorant cadence—
Ah, what sagacity perished here!
21. Overall, the characteristic of Mark Twain’s writing can best be described in what way?
22. Why was Mark Twain such a popular writer?
23. When Mark Twain wrote lines like, “always fetch up at the stand just about a neck ahead, as near as you could cipher it down . .
.” what was he doing?
24. What is the general characteristic of the advice in “Advice for Good Little Girls” and “Advice for Good Little Boys”?
25. What is the purpose of this story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”
26. In what way was London’s life similar to his stories?
27. How would you describe the protagonist in “To Build a Fire”?
28. What is the central message of “To Build a Fire”?
29. What is the external conflict in “To Build a Fire”?
30. Which are the protagonist’s problems in “To Build a Fire”?