MHDAON
Midterm Final Exam STUDY GUIDE – English IV Honors
I.Identify the literary and poetic devices: ( Jabberwocky/poetry)
Irony
Situational Irony
Verbal Irony
Dramatic Irony
Tragic hero
Meter
Stress pattern
Iamb
Iambic pentameter
Alliteration
End rhyme scheme
Internal rhyme
Onomatopoeia
Assonance
Enjambment
Stanza
Quatrain
couplet
II. Grendel
III.The Canterbury Tales
Identify both physical and character traits of pilgrims
Identify who said what in The Canterbury Tales
Identify the different types of satire and irony
IV.Geoffry Chaucer
Where did Chaucer spend most of his childhood ?
What occupation did Chaucer’s father hold and how did this influence Chaucer?
Were Chaucer’s pilgrims more interested in the companionship and social atmosphere of pilgrimages
than in its religious significance?
Where is Chaucer is buried ?
Was Chaucer able to complete The Canterbury Tales before he died?
V. Grammar (Subject Verb Agreement)
Such as:
Each of the air traffic controllers (was, were) communicating with departing and arriving pilots.
A team with too many superstars (has, have ) trouble working as a unit.
VI. Sonnets
What makes a poem a sonnet?
When did the Italian sonnet originate?
What is the etymology of the word “sonnet” ?
What does the Petrarchan sonnet form consists of ?
How are The Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet form similar and/or different?
Identify the form of a Shakespearean sonnet .
VII. Beowulf and the roots of Anglos Saxon Poetry (Middle Age History):
What is considered the oldest English in existence?
What did Anglo Saxon poetry fulfill?
In what perspective is Beowulf presented?
Which of the oldest Germanic Poetry that was composed survived?
What are the characteristic traits of the ideal epic hero?
Who was forced to sign the Magna Carta?
What probably had its source in the religious cult of the Virgin Mary?
What did the social status of women depend on?
What is the date of the Norman Conquest which marked the beginning of the Middle Ages?
The majority of people in Chaucer’s day were poor and made their living doing what?
What were books made of? How were they produced?
What are journeys to special places of religious or holy significance called?
Who enabled the government to tax people because he took inventory of every piece of property and
recorded it in a book entitled, The Doomesday Book?
Who fought The Hundred Years War?
Into which class was the Democrat of England born ?
What event ended the Middle Ages?
Why does The Canterbury Tales qualify as a medieval romance ?
VIII.Beowulf
Match the characters to their descriptions
What influenced Anglo Saxon poetry as represented in Beowulf.
Beowulf was thought to be composed in what year?
Grendel is considered to be a descendant of whom?
What themes does the poem, Beowulf blend?
What does Beowulf use to fight Grendel?
Similar to Greek culture, a customary Anglo Saxon funeral entailed what?
How are the warriors punished for abandoning Beowulf at the dragon’s cave?
What is an epic?
What are the characteristics which are shared by most epics?
Although the author of Beowulf is unknown it is believed to have been written by whom?
How did the Anglo-Saxons transmit their literature?
Beowulf believes that the outcome of all of his efforts is ultimately determined by what?
Beowulf reflects the belief that the battle between good and evil is what?
In Beowulf there are biblical allusions to what?
What does the phrase “hell-forged hands” suggest about Grendel?
Beowulf is presented from which perspective?
When was Beowulf thought to be composed?
How are The Dream of the Rood and Beowulf similar?
What do the low lying marshes represent in the battle with Grendel?
Why does Beowulf insist on fighting Grendel without weapons?
Which tribe does Beowulf offer to help other than his own, in spite of the danger?
What does Wiglaf do in his exhortation?
How will Beowulf continue to aid his people after his death?
Who are Grendel and his mother descendants of?
How is Beowulf related to King Hygelac?
Grendel
Why does Grendel believe his mother must be part human?
Hrothgars’s thanes believe Grendel’s raids are:
As a child, Grendel is trapped by what?
When men see Grendel for the first time, they believe he is:
How does Grendel learn human history?
Who signalled the coming of spring ?
Could Grendel understand the humans’ language?
Does Hrothgar fights with everyone?
Is Grendel is moved by the poetry he hears in Hrothgar’s mead hall?
Does Grendel desperately want to believe the songs he hears, that Hrothgar has indeed changed human nature?
Is it true that the harpist sings of an ancient feud between two brothers and implies that Hrothgar’s thanes are
descendants of the dark side, the cursed race?
Are the Danes pleased the Geats have come to save them from Grendel’s savage attacks?