Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Assignments Week 13

CP 12:

04/28: Paradise Lost pp. 472-473; 478-486; Reading Quiz, Vocab Due
04/29: Poetry of Pope pp. 536-550
04/30: Pope cont.; Reading Quiz
05/01: Johnson's "On Spring" pp. 592-597; Vocab Quiz

Honors 12:
The same, with vocabulary list here.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Honors 12 Vocab Week 13

1. delicacies (p. 614) -
2. melancholy (p. 614) -
3. importuning (p. 614) -
4. sustenance (p. 615) -
5. prodigious (p. 615) -
6. guile (p. 480) -
7. impious (p. 480) -
8. ethereal (p. 480) -
9. perdition (p. 480) -
10. obdurate (p. 480) -
11. deluge (p. 481) -
12. tempestuous (p. 481) -
13. myriads (p. 481) -
14. suppliant (p. 482) -
15. ignominy (p. 482) -

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Honors English 12 Exam Study Guide

-A close reader pays attention to diction because diction relates
a) imagery
b) tone
c) theme
d) setting

-An author's choice of words in a text is known as
a) syntax
b) tone
c) diction
d) imagery

-Syntax refers to
a) word order
b) word choice
c) sentence order
d) sentence choice

- Connotation refers to word meaning in opposition to
a) annotation
b) denotation
c) notation
d) allocation

-Authors employ imagery to
a) paint a picture in the mind of the reader.
b) help the reader understand the work.
c) create emotional support for the thesis or theme.
d) make the setting more realistic.

-Beowulf's chief motivation is
a) gold
b) loyalty
c) trust
d) pride

-Which character best represents the way societies treat those who deviate from societal norms?
a) Beowulf
b) Wealthow
c) Grendel
d) Unferth

-Which man questions Beowulf's abilities?
a) Hrothgar
b) Unferth
c) Wiglaf
d) Wealthow

-Weregild is
a) the price that must be paid to the family of a slain warrior
b) the price that must be paid to warriors to fight for their Lord
c) the price that must be paid to the Lord by his warriors
d) the price that must be paid to the wives of slain warriors

- The Anglo-Saxon concept of Fate suggests that
a) humans are not governed by Fate;
b) humans are completely governed by fate
c) past actions of humans influence future actions
d) humans' lives are completely governed by Chance

- Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales can best be described as
a) an estate satire
b) a medieval romance
c) an epic
d) a homily

-"The Pardoner's Tale" is a(n)
a) exemplum
b) allegory
c) part of a framed narrative
d) all of the above

-"The Wife of Bath's Tale" is a
a) frame
b) medieval romance
c) exemplum
d) all of the above

- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight can best be described as
a) an estate satire
b) a medieval romance
c) an epic
d) a homily

- The purpose of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is to
a) reinforce notions of chivalry
b) reflect life in medieval England
c) critique life in medieval England
d) demonstrate the passion of Christ

- The Green Knight serves chiefly to
a) present an element of the supernatural
b) represent fertility symbols
c) test Gawain's chivalry
d) cut off Gawain's head

- The episode in Bergilak's castle chiefly acts as a test of Gawain's
a) honesty
b) chastity
c) piety
d) faith

- Gawain finds Bergilak's castle as a result of his own
a) honesty
b) chastity
c) physical strength
d) faith

-The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus documents the European movement from
a) theological dogmatism to British Romanticism
b) theological dogmatism to secular humanism
c) secular humanism to mythic thought
d) secular humanism to theological dogmatism

-The two characters that most closely serve as foils to Macbeth are
a) Lady Macbeth and Lady Macduff
b) Macbeth and Macduff
c) Banquo and Macduff
d) Banquo and Fleance

-What event immediately precedes Macbeth's lowest point in the drama?
a) the killing of the chamberlains
b) the killing of Duncan
c) the killing of Banquo
d) the killing of Macduff's family

- By Act V, what is Macbeth's attitude on life?
a) It is completely pointless and must be ignored.
b) It is completely pointless and must simply be tolerated.
c) It is completely important and must be ignored.
d) It is completely important and must simply be tolerated.

- Macbeth compares his killing spree to
a) being drowned in a sea of blood
b) being covered in a shower of blood
c) wading through a pool of blood
d) getting shot by a super-soaker full of blood

-John Donne's "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" compares the souls of lovers to
a) a lump of gold
b) an intertwining vine
c) the legs of a compass
d) both a) and d)

- The extended metaphysical comparison of two unlike objects is called
a) paradox
b) metaphor
c) conceit
d) imagery

-John Donne's "Holy Sonnet 10" ends with a(n)
a) conceit
b) paradox
c) exemplum
d) category

- "Carpe diem" can best be translated to
a) Don't give up.
b) Make the best of your life
c) Seize the day
d) Eat your wheaties

- Carpe diem poets cite what fact as their reason for acting in the moment?
a) Life is an opportunity
b) As humans, we may die at any moment.
c) The past lives forever.
d) There is always tomorrow.

- English Romanticism is a response to
a) the French Revolution
b) the Industrial Revolution
c) both a) and b)
d) neither a) nor b)

-English Romanticism sets itself up to contrast with
a) Classicism
b) Renaissance humanism
c) Neoclassicism
d) Postmodernism

-Romantics value
a) symmetry
b) order
c) assymetry
d) none of the above

-The poetry of Robert Burns is considered pre-Romantic because
a) it directly responds to the French Revolution
b) it came immediately after the Age of Reason
c) it deals with themes of nature and common language
d) it makes use of iambic pentameter

-Robert Burns' "To a Louse" criticizes
a) Pride
b) Avarice
c) Lust
d) Envy

- Robert Burns' "To a Mouse" underscores the concept that
a) humans are subject to the whims of fate
b) humans are subject to the whims of nature
c) humans are subject to the whims of authority
d) humans are subject to the whims of beasts

-William Blake's concept of the sublime involved
a) multeity in unity
b) denying the poetic genius
c) seeing things as they really are
d) rejecting the Devil's party

- William Blake changed the final stanza of "The Tyger" to reflect
a) tranquility
b) multeity
c) symmetry
d) asymmetry

- Both "The Lamb" and "The Tyger" reflect questions of
a) Nature
b) creation
c) God
d) all of the above

-William Wordsworth's concept of the sublime involved
a) multeity in unity
b) denying the poetic genius
c) seeing into the life of things
d) rejecting the Devil's party

- "Tintern Abbey" discusses the feelings created by
a) friends
b) love
d) nature
e) politics

- Wordsworth's "London, 1802" reflects a longing for the return of
a) Chaucer
b) Shakespeare
c) Milton
d) Blake

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge's concept of the sublime involved
a) multeity in unity
b) denying the poetic genius
c) seeing things as they really are
d) rejecting the Devil's party

- The Rime of the Ancient Mariner demonstrates the power of language through
a) the speech of the mariner
b) the power of the albatross
c) the senselessness of the mariner's violence
d) the gambling of Life and Life-in-Death

- The mariner achieves redemption by recognizing
a) the beauty of nature
b) the power of curses
c) multeity in unity
d) both a) and c)

- "Ode on a Grecian Urn" focuses upon the ________________ of imagination.
a) positivity
b) limitlessness
c) spontaneity
d) formulaic quality

- Why are unheard melodies the sweetest?
a) Because you don't have to listen to bad music.
b) Because the music is the hardest part to discover.
c) Because the music becomes anything you want it to be.
d) Because the music is ruled by your reason.

-In The Quiet American, European interests in Vietnam are symbolized by
a) Pyle
b) Phuong
c) Fowler
d) Vigot

- In The Quiet American, the Vietnamese people are symbolized by
a) Pyle
b) Phuong
c) Fowler
d) Vigot

- The character most associated with Pascal's Wager is
a) Pyle
b) Phuong
c) Fowler
d) Vigot

- Which character is the most dynamic (i.e., changes the most)?
a) Pyle
b) Phuong
c) Fowler
d) Vigot

- A major theme of The Quiet American is
a) Postcolonialism
b) Postmodernism
c) Post-Romanticism
d) Post-Raisin Bran

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Reading Assignments and Due Dates Week 12

CP English 12:

04/21: pp. 434-441; Vocabulary Due; Reading Quiz
04/22: pp. 448-454
04/23: pp. 458-465
04/24: Vocabulary Quiz

Honors English 12:

04/21: pp. 448-454; Donne online; Reading Quiz
04/22: Donne/Jonson cont.
04/23: 458-465; Reading Quix
04/24: Vocabulary Quiz

Monday, April 20, 2009

Donne Questions

These questions are adapted from here.


You can find the individual poems at this site.


"The Good Morrow"

1. What use does the speaker make of the public realms he mentions--court, exploration, philosophy?

2. How is time's passage handled in this poem? What kind of temporality seems to govern Donne's love poetry?

"Song, Go and Catch a Falling Star"

3. What principle does "woman" stand for in this poem? The speaker's view may or may not closely resemble Donne's own, but how does it square with the compelling view of love relations we find in some of his sonnets?

"The Sun Rising"

4. What relationship is there between the public and the private spheres in this poem?

5. What is the speaker's attitude towards the sun?

"The Canonization"

6. How does the poem illustrate the idea that metaphysical poetry is characterized as much by logical precision as by a union of thought and feeling?

7. Explore one or more of the figures the speaker employs to describe love's mystery. What is striking about the way such figures are pursued?

8. What variation on the "immortalization through verse" theme does this poem set forth? How will the poem's "pretty rooms" (stanzas) become evidence in favor of the lovers' canonization?

9. As for the term "canonization," what does it mean? By what process is someone canonized? What is the balance or relationship in this poem between spirituality and erotic love?

"The Flea"

10. How does the opportunistic speaker keep pace with the events he is describing?

11. How seriously are we to take the sacred overtones of the poem--the references to the Trinity, etc.? How important is "honor" to the speaker?

"A Nocturnal"

12. How might this poem be said to reject or leave behind the love relations explored in poems such as "The Canonization"?

13. What does the speaker's self-definition by means of negatives prepare him to do or to accept?

14. What are lovers expected to learn from the speaker's unhappy experience?

"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning"

15. What is the speaker's strategy to keep away mourning? How does the conceit of "stiff twin compasses" figure in this strategy?

"The Ecstasy"

16. How does the speaker articulate the relationship between body and soul?

17. How do the poem's first eight stanzas illustrate or set up the philosophical claims made afterwards?

"A Lecture upon the Shadow"

18. Explain the poem's conceit. What warning does the lecture make?

"Holy Sonnets"

19. The Holy Sonnets address God rather than an earthly female lover. But what links Donne's sacred poetry to his love poetry?

20. What connection to God do these sonnets try to establish? What seems to be necessary for salvation?

21. Compare Holy Sonnets 17 and/or 18 to Milton's "Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint." Which poem emphasizes the speaker's plight more insistently? What is the status of the beloved in each?

"Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward"

22. How does this poem connect its ordinary time frame and event with eschatological (religious, referring to "end things" such as death and ressurrection) time and significance?

23. For example, what will happen when the speaker finally "turn[s his] face" towards God? What must happen before he can do that?

"Devotions: Meditation 4"

24. What relation between human beings and the natural world does this meditation assert?

25. Who is the "physician," and what can this physician do?

"Devotions: Meditation 17"

26. This selection emphasizes the union of all human beings. But focus more particularly on the relationship that Donne tries to establish with his audience: how does he establish that relationship, and in what does it consist?

27. Is the emphasis in this devotion more on the union of one person with all others, or on the union of one person with God? Or are both equally stressed? Explain.

Honors English 12 Vocabulary Week 12

1. coherence (p. 424) -
2. extorted (p. 424) -
3. dissenters (p. 424)
4. outmaneuver (p. 424) -
5. touchstone (p. 427) -
6. cerebral (p. 427) -
7. ingenuous (p. 427) -
8. shrewd (p. 434) -
9. eked (p. 434) -
10. divining (p. 437) -
11. valediction (p. 438) -
12. profanation (p. 438) -
13. trepidation (p. 438) -
14. breach (p. 439) -
15. astute (p. 448) -
16. oracle (p. 479) -
17. upright (p. 479) -
18. brooding (p. 480) -
19. tract (p. 480) -
20. transgress (p. 480) -

Monday, April 6, 2009

Honors English 12 Vocabulary List Week 11

The following words are from Hamlet:

01. apparition (I.i.28)
02. assail (I.i.31)
03. harrows (I.i.44)
04. avouch (I.i.57)
05. ratified (I.i.87)
06. portentous (I.i.109)
07. harbingers (I.i.122)
08. auspicious (I.ii.11)
09. filial (I.ii.91)
10. obsequious (I.ii.92)
11. obstinate (I.ii.93)
12. impious (I.ii.94)
13. peevish (I.ii.100)
14. dexterity (I.ii.157)
15. countenance (I.ii.231)
16. perchance (I.ii.244)
17. requite (I.ii.251)
18. besmirch (I.iii.15)
19. bounteous (I.iii.93)
20. breach (I.iv.16)

Friday, April 3, 2009

Graduation Project News

Via WRAL:

State delays graduation project requirement

North Carolina Education

The state Board of Education voted Thursday to delay the graduation project requirement for high school students by one year.

Now, the Class of 2011 will be the first group of students required to do research on an issue, create "products" to address the issues, write reports about the research and present their findings to a panel of community members.

"Many schools and districts across North Carolina have had a graduation project in some form or fashion for a decade or more. By giving the entire state more time to implement the North Carolina Graduation Project, we can ensure its success in every school and community," board Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Harrison said in a statement.

Board members say that they see the Graduation Project as having the potential eventually to replace some elements of the current high school testing program once it is in place statewide.

"The graduation project offers students the opportunity to explore a topic that they care about, to demonstrate what they know and can do, and to interact with adults in a professional way. These are skills that high school graduates will need as they pursue further education and go into the workplace," Rebecca Garland, chief academic officer for the state Department of Public Instruction, said in a statement.

Link

It appears Chatham County has yet to make a decision in response to the state's ruling.

Honors English 12 Macbeth Short Answer Questions

I'm going to defer to Dr. Schwartz for these questions.