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3. What does this excerpt from the Rigveda reveal about the Hindu belief on the god Purusha?
Poverty’s child –
He starts to grind the rice
And gazes at the moon.
5. This excerpt from Soyinkas Telephone Conversation indicates the universal issue of __________.
Read the following excerpted dialogue from Injustice Done to Tou Ngo then answer questions 14 15
Donkey Chang: Youve poisoned my father, Tou Ngo. Do you want to settle it in court or out of the court?
Tou Ngo: What do you mean settle it in court or out of court?
Donkey Chang: If you want to settle in court, Ill take you there to be tried and cross-examined and put to the
torture. With a delicate body like yours youll find it hard to bear that. You re bound to confess to
having poisoned my father. If you want to settle out of court, you d better become my wifejust
as quick as you can. Itll be doing you a favor.
Tou Ngo: I have not poisoned your father. Ill go to court with you.
A. War is a challenge for the brave who are unafraid of the risks.
B. War is hateful because warriors have no control over their lives.
C. War is the revenge of the strong and the powerful.
D. War is freedom for the dreams of the people.
20. What is the main idea of this haiku by Bashō?
So soon to die,
And no sign of it showing –
locust cry.
A. beauty of nature C. permanence of things
B. transitoriness of life D. reality of death
21. One of these features is not characteristic of African oral literature
A. repetition and parallel structure C. call-and-response
B. tonal alliteration D. repeat-and-vary
22. The __________ is an important kind of African moral tale intended for listeners to discuss and debate usually with
an open-ending.
A. Trickster B. Ashanti C. enigma D. origin
23. He is the leading figure of the Negritude movement.
A. Leopold Senghor B. Dennis Brutus C. Wole Soyinka D. David Diop
Read this excerpt from Diops Africa then answer questions 24-25.
Africa, my Africa,
Africa of proud warriors
In ancestral savannas,
Africa of whom my grandmother sings,
On the banks of the distant river
2
I have never known you.
ANSWER KEY
ANALYZING TEST ITEMS ENHANCING TEST TAKING SKILL
1. D 10. C 19. B 1. B 10. A 19. A
2. B 11. A 20. B 2. B 11. A 20. C
3. C 12. A 21. B 3. B 12. B 21. A
4. A 13. D 22. C 4. B 13. A 22. D
5. D 14. C 23. A 5. D 14. C 23. C
6. C 15. D 24. D 6. D 15. C 24. D
7. D 16. C 25. D 7. B 16. A 25. C
8. C 17. B 8. B 17. A
9. B 18. A 9. B 18. C
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2. The following lines from Robert Brownings My Last Duchess exemplify what poetic strategy?
A. Aside
That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, B. Dialogue
Looking as if she were alive. I call C. Monologue
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's hands D. Soliloquy
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will't please you sit and look at her?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: A. dramatic irony
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff: C. causal irony
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; B. irony of situation
And Brutus is an honourable man. D. verbal irony
Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows, A. Assonance and consonance
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows; B. Alliteration and onomatopoeia
but when loud surges lash the sounding shore, C. Consonance and cacophony
The hoarse, rough verse should like the torrent roar: D. Onomatopoeia and assonance
11. Which statement best summarizes the Holy Sonnet X by John Donne?
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well A. Death shall cease in the after life.
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then? B. Death comes through poppy or charms.
One short sleep past, we wake eternally, C. Death takes so many forms and ways.
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die. D. Death should not be proud since it is not mighty.
12. What does the word swellst in the Holy Sonnet X mean?
A. boast B. shrink C. grow D. swear
13. Which statement about love is true based on Shakespeare s Sonnet 116?
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks A. Love dissipates when lovers live apart.
Within his bending sickle's compass come: B. Love adapts to changing circumstances.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, C. Love never wanes even in old age.
But bears it out even to the edge of doom. D. Love grows even to the edge of doom.
14. In To the Virgins to Make Much of Time, what is the persona s main message?
A. Be wise in marriage to make life more worthwhile.
B. Marry now, or you may never have another chance.
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C. Gather the rosebuds now, before the roses bloom.
D. Choose only lovers who, like roses, are of the highest order.
15. Which word best describes the speaker in To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars ?
16. To what sensory perception do the following lines from James Joyce s Araby appeal?
A. auditory
we ran
to the dark dripping gardens to the back doors of the dark dripping
B. olfactory
gardens where odors arose from the ashpits, to the dark odorous stables
C. gustatory
where a coachman smoothed and combed the horse or shook music from the
D. tactile
buckled harness.
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: A. Power and arrogance are both destructive.
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" B. Temples and statues are witnesses to history.
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay C. Powerful rulers and great civilizations perish.
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare D. Life is short and time is fleeting.
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
19. What 17th Century philosophy does Browning assert in the following lines from Rabbi Ben Ezra?
20. What lesson does the speaker learn in A.E. Housman s When I Was One-and-Twenty?
'The heart out of the bosom A. The speaker realizes the value of listening to pieces of advice.
Was never given in vain; B. The speaker learns the foolishness of disobeying his elders.
'Tis paid with sighs a plenty C. The speaker realizes the folly and pain of youthful love.
And sold for endless rue.' D. The speaker learns the stupidity of wasting his youth.
And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.
ANSWER KEY
1. B 5. A 9. D 13. C 17. B
2. C 6. C 10. C 14. B 18. C
3. A 7. A 11. D 15. C 19. B
4. D 8. B 12. A 16. B 20. C
Directions: Answer the questions by writing the letter of the best answer.
1. How does Shelley regard the west wind in the following ode?
A. It is responsible for preserving life. From Ode to the West Wind
B. It can both wipe out and maintain life. Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
C. It is a wild spirit in nature that is very strong. (Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
D. It is strong but weak since it is everywhere. With living hues and odours plain and hill:
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and Preserver; hear, oh, hear!
2. How does the speaker picture God in the following sermon?
The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider; or some loathsome
insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like
fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes
than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes,
than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.
7. What does the speaker like about Chicago as shown in the following lines?
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing A. Its vitality
so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning. B. Its wickedness
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on C. Its indifference
job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the D. Its progress
little soft cities;
8. Who are the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot Paine alluded to in The Crisis?
A. The cowards who love their country less
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer
B. The brave men and women in the country
soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis,
C. The happy optimistic people
shrink from the service of their country; but he that
D. The former heroes of the revolution
stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man
9. What does that the speaker lament over in the following lines?
A. Roses will always be roses despite their variety.
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any B. Their names keep Romeo and Juliet apart.
other name would smell as sweet". - (Romeo and C. Romeo and Juliet will always love one another.
Juliet Act II, Scene II) D. Changing names will help Romeo and Juliet.
"All the worlds a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays
many parts" - (As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII)
A. Life is just like going to the theater. C. Life is but an empty, senseless dream.
B. People have different roles to play in life. D. People live and die at different times.
13. What truth about humans do the following lines from A Noiseless Patient Spider reveal?
A. People need food and shelter
And you, O my Soul, where you stand,
B. People search for their meaning
Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,
C. People need friends and families
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,--seeking
D. People endlessly seek to create
the spheres, to connect them;
Till the bridge you will need, be form'd--till the ductile anchor hold;
Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.
2. Which of the following is the resounding theme of contemporary stories like Hemingway s A Clean and Well Lighted
Place and Andersons Hands?
A. alienation from the society C. respect for the old
B. melancholia in solitude D. contentment in life
3. Who is alluded to as the Captain in the following lines from Whitman s poem?
A. Abraham Lincoln
O`captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done, B. George Washington
The ship has weatherd every rack, the prize we sought is C. John F. Kennedy
won. D. Thomas Jefferson
4. In the passage, which of the following best describes the speaker's attitude toward the very rich?
Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early,
and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a
way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they
are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves.
Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They
are different.
A. He finds their pessimism alarming and unwarranted. C. He believes that the rich know more than others do.
B. He finds them so different from the rest of society D. He thinks that he understands their way of life.
5. What is the tone of the speaker in the previous passage?
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A. Optimistic B. Laconic C. Pessimistic D. Sarcastic
6. What do the novels of Bronte, Eliot, Gaskell and Dickens reveal about fiction produced during the Victorian period in
English Literature?
A. They closely represent the real social life of the times.
B. The novels were long and full of psychological musings.
C. They concentrate on the effect of industrialization on cities.
D. They were largely produced by upper middle-class women.
7. What do the last two lines from Freneaus The Wild Honeysuckle reveal about life?
From morning suns and evening dews A. Life is just an hour.
At first thy little being came; B. Life is frail.
If nothing once, you nothing lose, C. Life is short.
For when you die you are the same; D. It is like a flower.
The space between is but an hour,
The frail duration of flower.
8. What do the following lines from Wordsworths Psalm of Life reveal about heroes and heroism?
ANSWER KEY
1. B 5. B 9. B 13. B 17. D
2. A 6. C 10. A 14. A 18. A
3. D 7. A 11. C 15. A 19. C
4. C 8. A 12. B 16. B 20. A
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6. Dream of the Rood is one of the earliest Christian poems preserved in the 10 th century Vercelli book. The poem
makes use of dream vision to narrate the death and resurrection of Christ from the perspective of the Cross or
Rood itself.
7. Heroic Old English poems: The Battle of Brunanburg and The Battle of Maldon
8. Old English Lyrics: The Wanderer and The Seafarer
9
His sonnets, also known as the Elizabethan sonnet, are
composed of three quatrains and one heroic couplet with the
rhyme scheme - abab-cdcd-efef-gg.
Some quotable quotes from Shakespeare
Sonnet 18 1. "The plays the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the
William Shakespeare king". - (Hamlet Act II, Scene II)
2. "All the worlds a stage, and all the men and women merely
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man
Thou art more lovely and more temperate. in his time plays many parts" - (As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII)
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
3. "Good Night, Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
shall say good night till it be morrow." - (Romeo and Juliet, Act II,
Scene II)
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; 4. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name
And every fair from fair sometime declines, would smell as sweet". - (Romeo and Juliet Act II, Scene II)
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; 5. "If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not
laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall
But thy eternal summer shall not fade we not revenge?". - (The Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene I)
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; 6. "Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, taste of death but once." - (Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene II).
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st: 7. "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless
child!" - (King Lear, Act I, Scene IV).
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
5.. The King James Bible is one of the supreme achievements of the English Renaissance. This translation was ordered
by James I and made by 47 scholars working in cooperation. It was published in 1611 and is known as the Authorized
Version. It is rightly regarded as the most influential book in the history of English civilization.
from Of Studies
Francis Bacon
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some
books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with
diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that
would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books, else distilled books are like
common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact
man. Holy Sonnets X
John Donne
2. John Bunyan (1628-1688) was an English Christian writer and preacher notable for his Christian allegory The
Pilgrim's
Death, be notProgress.
proud, though some have
Allegory called
is thee
story illustrating an idea or a moral principle in which objects and characters take on symbolic
Mighty and dreadful, for thoutoart notnarrative.
so; To the Virgins to Make Much of
meanings external the Pilgrim s Progress shows Christian tormented by spiritual anguish. A
For those, whom thou think'st thou dost Time
spiritual guide named Evangelist visits Christian and urges him to leave the City of Destruction. Evangelist
overthrow, Robert Herrick
claims that salvation can only be found in the Celestial City, known as Mount Zion. Christian embarks on a
Die not, poor Death,
journey andnor yet canst
meets thouof
a number kill
other characters before he reaches the Celestial City.
me. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
3. John Milton (1608-74) was a Puritan poet who served Cromwell as Latin secretary; he is best known for his epic
From rest and sleep, which but thy Old time is still a-flying:
poem Paradise Lost and its sequel Paradise Regained.
picture[s] be, from Easter Wings And this same flower that smiles to-
Paradise
Much pleasure, thenLost
fromistheean epic
muchpoem
morein blank verse George
that tells of the fall of the angels and of the creation
day of Adam and
Herbert
Eve and their
must flow, temptation by Satan in the Garden of Eden ("Of Man's first disobedience,
To-morrowthe
and will fruit/ Of that
be dying.
forbidden tree . . . ").
And soonest our best men with thee do The glorious lamp of heaven, the
My tender age in sorrow did
4. John Donne (1572-1631)
go, was the greatest of the metaphysical poets best remembered for his use sun,of metaphysical
beginne:
Restconceits
of theirinbones,
the Holyand Sonnets.
soul's delivery. The higher he's a-getting,
And still with sicknesses and
slave
Thou'rt Metaphysical Poetrykings,
to Fate, chance, makes use of conceits or farfetched
and shame similes and The sooner
metaphors will
intended his race be run,
to startle the
reader
desperate
into an men,
awareness of the relationships Thouamong
didst so things ordinarily
punish sinne, not associated. And nearer he's to setting.
2.
AndGeorge
dost withHerbert
poison,(1593-1633),
war, and sicknesslike Donne, wasThatboth a metaphysical
I became That agepriest.
poet and an Anglican
Most thinne. is bestSomewhichofisHerbert's
the first,
poetry deals with man's thirst for God and with God's abounding love.When youth and blood are warmer;
most effectivedwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep With thee But being spent, the worse, and
as well, Let me combine, worst
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st And feel this day thy victorie, Times still succeed the former.
thou then? For, if I imp my wing on Then be not coy, but use your time,
One short sleep past, we wake eternally, thine, And while ye may go marry:
And Death shall be no more; Death, thou Affliction shall advance the For having lost but once10 your prime
shalt die. flight in me. You may for ever tarry.
5. Andrew Marvell (1621-1678), Richard Crashaw (1612-1649), and Henry Vaughan (1622-1695) were other
metaphysical poets of merit. Marvell is famous for his well-loved lyric To His Coy Mistress.
6. Cavalier Poets include Thomas Carew (1595-1639), Richard Lovelace (1618-58), Sir John Suckling (1609-
42), and Robert Herrick (1591-1674). Cavalier poets preferred more straightforward expression. They value
elegance, and were part of a refined, courtly culture, but their poetry is often frankly erotic. Their strength was the
short lyric poem, and a favorite theme was carpe diem, "seize the day."
12
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882). His Blessed Damozel and Sister Helen are typical of his highly
sensuous verse.
Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894), Gabriels sister, wrote one of the most fanciful poems in the
language, Goblin Market.
B. Victorian Novelists
1. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) became a master of local color in The Pickwick Papers. He is considered as
England's best-loved novelist. His works include: Great Expectations, Hard Times, Oliver Twist, A Christmas
Carol, A Tale of Two Cities.
2. William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) disliked sham, hypocrisy, stupidity, false optimism, and self-seeking.
The result was satire on manners like Vanity Fair with its heroine, Becky Sharp.
3. Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855), Emily Bronte (1818-1848) and Anne Bronte (1820-1849) wrote novels romantic
novels.
Charlotte's Jane Eyre and Emily's Wuthering Heights, especially, are powerful and intensely personal stories of
the private lives of characters isolated from the rest of the world.
4. George Eliot (1819-80) was one of England's greatest women novelists. She is famous for Silas Marner and
Middlemarch.
5. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) is a naturalist writer who brought to fiction a philosophical attitude that resulted from
the new science.
Hardys Wessex novels from The Return of the Native, Tess of d Urbervilles, Mayor of Casterbridge to
Jude the Obscure sought to show the futility and senselessness of human s struggle against the forces of
natural environment, social convention, and biological heritage.
6. Samuel Butler (1835-1902) believed that evolution is the result of the creative will rather than of chance selection.
His novel The Way of All Flesh explores the relationships between parents and children where he reveals that the
family restrains the free development of the child.
C. Romance and Adventure
1. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94) wrote stories in a light mood. His novels of adventure are exciting and
delightful: Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and The Master of Ballantrae.
Stevenson also wrote David Balfour and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde which endear him to
adult readers as well.
2. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) satirized the English military and administrative classes in India. He stirred the
emotions of the empire lovers through his delightful children's tales. He is known for Barrack Room Ballads,
Soldiers Three, The Jungle Books, and Captains Courageous.
3. Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) (1832-98) combines fantasy and satire in Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland and Through a Looking Glass.
D. 19th-Century Drama
1. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) is a poet and novelist who became famous for his Importance of Being Earnest.
2. George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) wrote plays known for their attacks on Victorian prejudices and attitudes. Shaw
began to write drama as a protest against existing conditions slums, sex hypocrisy, censorship, and war. Because his
plays were not well received, Shaw wrote their now-famous prefaces.
b.
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), John Millington Synge (1871-1909), and Lord Dunsany (1878-1957)
worked vigorously for the Irish cause. All were dramatists and all helped found the famous Abbey Theatre.
3. Writers after the World Wars
World War I brought discontent and disillusionment. Men were plunged into gloom at the knowledge that "progress"
had not saved the world from war. In fiction there was a shift from novels of the human comedy to novels of
13
characters. Fiction ceased to be concerned with a plot or a forward-moving narrative. Instead it followed the
twisted, contorted development of a single character or a group of related characters
a. William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) focused on the alienation and despair of drifters. His Of Human
Bondage portrays Philip Carey struggling against self-consciousness and embarrassment because of his cub-
foot.
b. D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930) explored highly psychological themes as human desire, sexuality, and instinct
alongside the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialization in such great novels as Sons and Lovers,
Women in Love, The Plumed Serpent, and Lady Chatterley s Lover.
c. James Joyce (1882-1941) was an Irish expatriate noted for his experimental use of the interior monologue
and the stream of consciousness technique in landmark novels as Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, and in his
semi-autobiographical novel The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Stream of consciousness is a technique pioneered by Dorothy Richardson, Virginia Woolf and James Joyce.
It presents the thoughts and feelings of a character as they occur.
Joyces A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is one of the most notable bildungs-roman in English
literature. A bildungsroman is a novel of formation or development in which the protagonist transforms
from ignorance to knowledge, innocence to maturity.
d. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) also believed that reality, or consciousness, is a stream. Life, for both reader and
characters, is immersion in the flow of that stream. Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse are among her best
works.
e. Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) wrote Point Counter Point, Brave New World, and After Many a Summer
Dies the Swan where he showed his cynicism of the contemporary world.
f. William Golding (born 1911) was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1983. His first novel, Lord of
the Flies tells of a group of schoolboys who revert to savagery when isolated on an island. In the novel, Golding
explores naturalist and religious themes of original sin.
g. George Orwell (1903-50) is world-renown, for the powerful anti-Communist satire Animal Farm. This was
followed in 1949 with an anti-totalitarian novel entitled Nineteen Eighty-Four.
h. Graham Greene (1904-91) is known for novels of highly Catholic themes like Brighton Rock, The Heart of
the Matter, The End of the Affair and The Power and the Glory. Among his better-known later novels are
The Quiet American, Our Man in Havana, A Burnt-Out Case, The Human Factor, and Monsignor
Quixote.
i. Kingsley Amis is considered by many to be the best of the writers to emerge from the 1950s. The social
discontent he expressed made Lucky Jim famous in England. Lucky Jim is the story of Jim Dixon, who rises
from a lower-class background only to find all the positions at the top of the social ladder filled.
j. Anthony Burgess (born 1917) was a novelist whose fictional exploration of modern dilemmas combines wit,
moral earnestness, and touches of the bizarre. He is known for A Clockwork Orange. His other novels include
Enderby Outside, Earthly Powers, The End of the World News, and The Kingdom of the Wicked.
k. Doris Lessing (born 1919) is a Zimbabwean-British writer, famous for novels The Grass is Singing and The
Golden Notebook. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007.
l. Salman Rushdie is a British-Indian novelist and essayist noted for his Midnight's Children and The Satanic
Verses which prompted Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa against him, because Muslims considered the
book blasphemous. In July 2008 Midnight's Children won a public vote to be named the Best of the Booker, the
best novel to win the Booker Prize in the award's 40-year history.
AMERICAN LITERATURE
A. Early American and Colonial Period to 1776
American literature begins with the orally transmitted myths, legends, tales, and lyrics (always songs) of Indian
cultures. There was no written literature among the more than 500 different Indian languages and tribal cultures that
existed in North America before the first Europeans arrived.
Indian stories are characterized by the following:
o reverence for nature as a spiritual as well as physical mother
o nature is rendered alive and endowed with spiritual forces
o main characters may be animals or plants, often totems associated with a tribe, group, or individual
o Accounts of migrations and ancestors abound, as do vision or healing songs and tricksters' tales.
The songs or poetry, like the narratives, range from the sacred to the light and humorous: There are lullabies, war
chants, love songs, and special songs for children's games, gambling, various chores, magic, or dance ceremonials.
Examples of almost every oral genre can be found in American Indian literature: lyrics, chants, myths, fairy tales,
humorous anecdotes, incantations, riddles, proverbs, epics, and legendary histories. Certain creation stories are
particularly popular.
B. THE LITERATURE OF EXPLORATION
1. Christopher Columbus the famous Italian explorer, funded by the Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella, wrote the
"Epistola," printed in 1493 which recounts his voyages.
2. Captain John Smith led the Jamestown colony and wrote the famous story of the Indian maiden, Pocahontas.
C. COLONIAL PERIOD IN NEW ENGLAND
1. William Bradford (1590-1657) wrote Of Plymouth Plantation and the first document of colonial self-
governance in the English New World, the Mayflower Compact. To my Dear and Loving Husband
2. Anne Bradstreet (c. 1612-1672) wrote the first published Anne Bradstreet
book of poems by an American which was also the first American
book to be published by a woman. If ever two were one, then surely we.
She wrote long, religious poems on conventional subjects, If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee.
but she is well loved for her witty poems on subjects from If ever wife was happy in a man,
daily life and her warm and loving poems to her husband Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
and children. I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold
She was inspired by English metaphysical poetry, and her Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
book The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
(1650) shows the influence of Edmund Spenser, Philip Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Sidney, and other English poets as well. Thy love is such I can no way repay.
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let's
14 so persever
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
3. Edward Taylor (c. 1644-1729) was an intense, brilliant poet,
teacher and minister who sailed to New England in 1668 rather
than take an oath of loyalty to the Church of England.
He wrote a variety of verse: funeral elegies, lyrics, a
medieval "debate," and a 500-page Metrical History of
Christianity (mainly a history of martyrs). His best works,
according to modern critics, are the series of short
Preparatory Meditations.
4. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was molded by his extreme sense of duty and by the rigid Puritan environment,
which conspired to make him defend strict and gloomy Calvinism from the forces of liberalism springing up around
him. He is best known for his frightening, powerful sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
Puritans refer to two distinct groups: "separating" Puritans, such as the Plymouth colonists, who believed that
the Church of England was corrupt and that true Christians must separate themselves from it; and non-
separating Puritans, such as those in Massachusetts Bay Colony, who believed in reform but not separation.
Puritans believed in Gods ultimate sovereignty in granting grace and salvation; therefore, their lives center on
three important covenants covenants of Works, Grace, and Redemption.
D. THE AMERICAN ENLIGHTENMENT
Enlightenment thinkers and writers were devoted to the ideals of justice, liberty, and equality as the natural rights of
man. Thus, the18th-century American Enlightenment was a movement marked by -
an emphasis on rationality rather than tradition,
scientific inquiry instead of unquestioning religious dogma, and
Representative government in place of monarchy.
1. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was America's "first great man of letters," who embodied the Enlightenment ideal
of humane rationality.
Franklin was a leading author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist,
statesman, and diplomat.
He was an important figure at the 1787 convention at which the U.S. Constitution was drafted. In his later years,
he was president of an antislavery association and one of his last efforts was to promote universal public
education.
He used the pseudonym Poor Richard or Richard Saunders in Poor Richard s Almanack a yearly almanac he
released from 1732-1758. The almanac was a repository of Franklin s proverbs and aphorisms.
2. Thomas Paine (1737-1809) is known for his political pamphlets. His pamphlet Common Sense sold over 100,000
copies in the first three months of its publication. He wrote the famous line, "The cause of America is in a great
measure the cause of all mankind."
3. Philip Freneau (1752-1832) was the poet of the American Revolution who incorporated the new stirrings of
European Romanticism in his lyric The Wild Honeysuckle.
4. Washington Irving (1789-1859) became a cultural and diplomatic ambassador to Europe, like Benjamin Franklin
and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
With the help of friends, he was able to publish his Sketch Book (1819-1820) simultaneously in England and
America, obtaining copyrights and payment in both countries. The Sketch Book of Geoffrye Crayon (Irving's
pseudonym) contains his two best-remembered stories, Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
5. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) wrote the Leather Stocking tales in which he introduced his renowned
character Natty Bumppo, who embodies his vision of the frontiersman as a gentleman, a Jeffersonian "natural
aristocrat."
Natty Bumppo is the first famous frontiersman in American literature and the literary forerunner of countless
cowboy and backwoods heroes.
6. Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784) is the first African-American author who wrote of religious themes. Just like that of
Philip Freneau, her style is neoclassical.
Among her best-known poems are To S.M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works and On Being
Brought from Africa to America. These poems boldly confront white racism and assert spiritual equality.
E. THE ROMANTIC PERIOD, 1820-1860
The Romantic Movement, which originated in Germany but quickly spread to England, France, and beyond,
reached America around the year 1820, some 20 years after William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge had
revolutionized English poetry by publishing Lyrical Ballads.
Romanticism in America coincided with the period of national expansion and the discovery of a distinctive
American voice.
Romantic ideas centered on art as inspiration, the spiritual and aesthetic dimension of nature, and metaphors of
organic growth.
Art, rather than science, could best express universal truth. The Romantics underscored the importance of expressive
art for the individual and society. In his essay The Poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson asserts:
For all men live by truth, and stand in need of expression. In love, in art, in avarice, in politics, in
labor, in games, we study to utter our painful secret. The man is only half himself, the other half
is his expression.
The development of the self became a major theme; self- awareness a primary method. The idea of "self" - which
suggested selfishness to earlier generations - was redefined. New compound words with positive meanings emerged:
"self-realization," "self-expression," "self- reliance."
As the unique, subjective self became important, so did the realm of psychology. Exceptional artistic effects and
techniques were developed to evoke heightened psychological states. The "sublime" -- an effect of beauty in
grandeur, produced feelings of awe, reverence, vastness, and a power beyond human comprehension.
Romanticism was affirmative and appropriate for most American poets and creative essayists. America's vast
mountains, deserts, and tropics embodied the sublime. The Romantic spirit seemed particularly suited to American
democracy.
Transcendentalists
The Transcendentalist movement was a reaction against 18th century rationalism and a manifestation of the
general humanitarian trend of 19th century thought.
The movement was based on the belief in the unity of the world and God.
The doctrine of self- reliance and individualism developed through the belief in the identification of the individual
soul with God.
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1. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was a leading exponent of the transcendentalist movement who called for the
birth of American individualism inspired by nature.
In his essay Self-Reliance, Emerson remarks: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
Most of his major ideas the need for a new national vision, the use of personal experience, the notion of the
cosmic Over-Soul, and the doctrine of compensation are suggested in his first publication, Nature.
2. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) wrote Walden, or Life in the Woods, which was the result of two years, two
months, and two days (from 1845 to 1847) he spent living in a cabin he built at Walden Pond on property owned by
Emerson.
In Walden, Thoreau not only tests the theories of transcendentalism, but he also re-enacts the collective
American experience of the 19th century by living on the frontier.
He also wrote Civil Disobedience, with its theory of passive resistance based on the moral necessity for the just
individual to disobey unjust laws. This was an inspiration for Mahatma Gandhi's Indian independence movement
and Martin Luther King's struggle for black Americans' civil rights in the 20th century.
3. Walt Whitman (1819-1892) incorporated both
transcendentalist and realist ideas in his works. He From Song of Myself
championed the individual and the country's democratic spirit Walt Whitman
in his Leaves of Grass.
Leaves of Grass, which he rewrote and revised I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
throughout his life, contains Song of Myself, the And what I assume you shall assume,
strongest evocation of the transcend list ideals. For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to
you.
I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died
Emily Dickinson
I heard a fly buzz when I died; The stillness round my form 4. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was a radical
was like the stillness in the air between the heaves of storm. individualist who found deep inspiration in the birds,
The eyes beside had wrung them dry, and breaths were animals, plants, and changing seasons of the New
gathering sure England countryside. She wrote 1,775 poems but only
For that last onset, when the king be witnessed in his power. I one was published in her lifetime.
willed my keepsakes, signed away She shows a terrifying existential awareness. Like
What portion of me I could make assignable, and then Poe, she explores the dark and hidden part of the
there interposed a fly, mind, dramatizing death and the grave.
With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz, between the light and
me; And then the windows failed, and then
I could not see to see.
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6. Henry James, William Faulkner, and many other American writers experimented with fictional points of view.
James often restricted the information in the novel to what a single character would have known. Faulkner's novel
The Sound and the Fury (1929) breaks up the narrative into four sections, each giving the viewpoint of a different
character (including a mentally retarded boy).
7. To analyze such modernist novels and poetry, New Criticism arose in the United States.
For I have known them all already, known them all: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock embodies
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, this approach, when the ineffectual, elderly Prufrock
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; thinks to himself that he has "measured out his life in
I know the voices dying with a dying fall coffee spoons," using coffee spoons to reflect a
Beneath the music from a farther room. humdrum existence and a wasted lifetime.
So how should I presume?
3. Robert Frost (1874-1963) combines sound and sense in his frequent use of rhyme and images. Frost's poems are
often deceptively simple but suggest a deeper meaning.
4. Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) lived a double life, one as an insurance business The Red Wheelbarrow
executive, another as a renowned poet. His associates in the insurance company did William Carlos Williams
not know that he was a major poet.
Some of his best known poems are "Sunday Morning," "Peter Quince at the so much depends
Clavier," "The Emperor of Ice-Cream," "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a upon
Blackbird," and "The Idea of Order at Key West."
Stevens's poetry dwells upon themes of the imagination, the necessity for a red wheel
aesthetic form, and the belief that the order of art corresponds with an order in barrow
nature. His vocabulary is rich and various: He paints lush tropical scenes but
also manages dry, humorous, and ironic vignettes. glazed with rain
5. William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) championed the use of colloquial speech; water
his ear for the natural rhythms of American English helped free American poetry from
the iambic meter that had dominated English verse since the Renaissance. beside the white
His sympathy for ordinary working people, children, and everyday events in chickens.
modern urban settings make his poetry attractive and accessible. The Red
Wheelbarrow, like a Dutch still life, finds interest and beauty in everyday
objects.
He termed his work "objectivist" to suggest the importance of concrete, visual objects. His work influenced the
"Beat" writing of the early 1950s.
Beat Generation refers to a group of American writers who became popular in the 1950s and who popularized
the Beatniks" culture. The Beatniks rejected mainstream American values, experimented with drugs and
alternate forms of sexuality, and focused on Eastern spirituality.
The major works of Beat writing are Allen Ginsberg's Howl, William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch and Jack
Kerouac's On the Road.
6. Edward Estlin Cummings (1894-1962), commonly known as e.e. cummings, wrote innovative verse distinguished
for its humor, grace, celebration of love and eroticism, and experimentation with punctuation and visual format on the
page.
8. Langston Hughes (1902-1967) embraced African- American jazz rhythms in his works. He was one of the leaders
of the Harlem Renaissance responsible for the flowering of African-American culture and writings.
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2. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) received the Nobel Prize in 1954 for his The Old Man and the Sea a short
poetic novel about a poor, old fisherman who heroically catches a huge fish devoured by sharks. This also won for
him the Pulitzer Prize in 1953
Hemingway wrote of war, death, and the "lost generation" of cynical survivors. His characters are not dreamers
but tough bullfighters, soldiers, and athletes. If intellectual, they are deeply scarred and disillusioned.
3. William Faulkner (1897-1962) experimented with narrative chronology, different points of view and voices
(including those of outcasts, children, and illiterates), and a rich and demanding baroque style built of extremely long
sentences full of complicated subordinate parts.
Created an imaginative landscape, Yoknapatawpha County, mentioned in numerous novels, along with several
families with interconnections extending back for generations.
His best works include The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying, two modernist works experimenting with
viewpoint and voice to probe southern families under the stress of losing a family member;
Faulkner's themes are southern tradition, family, community, the land, history and the past, race, and the
passions of ambition and love.
4. Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) is the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930.
Lewis's Main Street satirized the monotonous, hypocritical small-town life in Gopher Prairie, Minnesota. His
incisive presentation of American life and his criticism of American materialism, narrowness, and hypocrisy
brought him national and international recognition.
In 1926, he was offered and declined a Pulitzer Prize for Arrowsmith, a novel tracing a doctor's efforts to
maintain his medical ethics amid greed and corruption.
5. John Steinbeck (1902-1968) received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1963 for his realist novel The Grapes of
Wrath, the story of a poor Oklahoma family that loses its farm during the Depression and travels to California to
seek work.
6. Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) was an American poet, novelist, short story and children s author. She became famous
for her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, which pictures a woman trapped between the dictates of marriage,
mother, and wifehood and the demands of a creative spirit that.
Confessional poetry was popularized by Robert Lowell, Richard Snodgrass, Anne Sexton, and Sylvia Plath. It is
a kind of poetry which reveals the poets personal life in poems about illnesses, sexuality, and despondence.
7. Richard Wright (1908-1960) was the first African-American novelist to reach a general audience, despite his little
education. He depicted his harsh childhood as a colored American in one of his best books, his autobiography, Black
Boy. He later said that his sense of deprivation, due to racism, was so great that only reading kept him alive.
8. Zora Neale Hurston (1903-1960) is known as one of the lights of the Harlem Renaissance. She first came to New
York City at the age of 16 - having arrived as part of a traveling theatrical troupe.
Her most important work, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is a moving, fresh depiction of a beautiful mulatto
woman's maturation and renewed happiness as she moves through three marriages.
9. Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953) is the first American playwright to be honored with the Nobel Prize for Literature in
1936.
O'Neill's earliest dramas concern the working class and poor, but his later works explore subjective realms, such
as obsessions, sex and other Freudian themes.
His play Desire Under the Elms recreates the passions hidden within one family; The Great God Brown
uncovers the unconsciousness of a wealthy businessman; and his Strange Interlude, a winner of the Pulitzer
Prize, traces the tangled loves of one woman.
O'Neill continued to explore the Freudian pressures of love and dominance within families in a trilogy of plays
collectively entitled Mourning Becomes Electra, based on the classical Oedipus trilogy by Sophocles.
10. Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) is known for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and for his novel The
Bridge of San Luis Rey.
Our Town has all the elements of sentimentality and nostalgia the archetypal traditional small country town, the
kindly parents and mischievous children, the young lovers.
It shows Wilders innovative elements such as ghosts, voices from the audience, and daring time shifts.
11. Arthur Miller (1915- ) is New York-born dramatist-novelist-essayist-biographer.
He reached his personal pinnacle in 1949 with Death of a Salesman, a study of man's search for merit and
worth in his life and the realization that failure invariably looms.
Miller also wrote All My Sons and The Crucible both political satires.
12. Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) focused on disturbed emotions and unresolved sexuality within families - most of
them southern.
As one of the first American writers to live openly as a homosexual, Williams explained that the sexuality of his
tormented characters expressed their loneliness. He was known for incantatory repetitions, a poetic southern
diction, weird Gothic settings, and Freudian exploration of sexual desire. He became famous for his The Glass
Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire.
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1. Ralph Waldo Ellison (1914-1994) is known for his one highly-acclaimed book the Invisible Man (1952) which is a
story of a black man who lives a subterranean existence in a hole brightly illuminated by electricity stolen from a
utility company. The book recounts his grotesque, disenchanting experiences.
2. Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980) created fiction organized around a single narrator telling the story from a
consistent point of view. Her first success, the story Flowering Judas, was set in Mexico during the revolution.
3. Eudora Welty (1909-2001) modeled after Katherine Ann Porter, but she is more interested in the comic and
grotesque characters like the stubborn daughter in her short story Why I Work at the P.O., who moves out of her
house to live in a tiny post office.
5. Saul Bellow (1915-2005) received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976.
Bellow's Seize the Day is a brilliant novella noted for its excellence and brevity. It centers on a failed
businessman, Tommy Wilhelm, who tries to hide his feelings of inadequacy by presenting a good front. Seize
the Day sums up the fear of failure that plagues many Americans.
6. J.D. Salinger (1919- ) achieved huge literary success with the publication of his novel The Catcher in the Rye
(1951).
The novel centers on a sensitive 16-year-old, Holden Caulfield, who flees his elite boarding school for the outside
world of adulthood, only to become disillusioned by its materialism and phoniness. When asked what he would
like to be, Caulfield answers "the catcher in the rye," In his vision, he is a modern version of a white knight, the
sole preserver of innocence.
His other works include Nine Stories, Franny and Zooey, and Raise High the Roof-Beam, Carpenters, a
collection of stories from The New Yorker.
7. Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) was the son of an impoverished French-Canadian family; Jack Kerouac also questioned
the values of middle-class life.
Kerouac's best-known novel, On the Road, describes "beatniks" wandering through America seeking an idealistic
dream of communal life and beauty.
The Dharma Bums also focuses on peripatetic counterculture intellectuals and their infatuation with Zen
Buddhism.
Kerouac also penned a book of poetry, Mexico City Blues, and volumes about his life with such beatniks as
experimental novelist William Burroughs and poet Allen Ginsberg.
8. John Barth (1930- ) is more interested in how a story is told than in the story itself. Barth entices his audience into
a carnival fun-house full of distorting mirrors that exaggerate some features while minimizing others. Many of his
earlier works were in fact existential.
In Lost in the Funhouse, he collects14 stories that constantly refer to the processes of writing and reading.
Barth's intent is to alert the reader to the artificial nature of reading and writing, and to prevent him or her from
being drawn into the story as if it were real.
9. Norman Mailer (1923-2007) was a novelist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director. He is
considered as an innovator of narrative nonfiction called New Journalism in Miami and the Siege of Chicago. He is
also famous for his compelling study about the execution of a condemned murderer in The Executioner's Song. In
the e1990s, he wrote such heavyweight novels as Ancient Evenings, set in the Egypt of antiquity, and Harlot's
Ghost, revolving around the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
10. Toni Morrison (1931- ) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993 for her skillful rendition of complex identities
of black people in a universal manner. In her early work The Bluest Eye, a strong-willed young black girl tells the
story of Pecola Breedlove, who survives an abusive father. Pecola believes that her dark eyes have magically become
blue, and that they will make her lovable. Some of her novels include: Sula, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, and
Beloved.
11. Alice Walker (1944- ) is an African-American who uses lyrical realism in her epistolary dialect novel The Color
Purple where she exposes social problems and racial issues.
Walker's The Color Purple is the story of the love between two poor black sisters that survives a separation
over years, interwoven with the story of how, during that same period, the shy, ugly, and uneducated sister
discovers her inner strength through the support of a female friend. The theme of the support women give each
other recalls Maya Angelou's autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), which celebrates the
mother-daughter connection, and the work of white feminists such as Adrienne Rich.
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7. Things that are beautiful have a way of hurting. I destroy when I feel hurt. What does Fabian s thoughts reveal
about his character?
A. bitter B. goal-oriented C. persistent D. vindictive
8. They dressed him in purple and linen, in myth and mystery, put him astride a black stallion, at the wheel of a blue
automobile. How do the townspeople regard Mr. Reteche in Rotor s Zita?
A. They find him difficult and confusing. C. They mocked him.
B. They were at awe with his presence. D. They respected and admired him.
9. She did not have the courage to break into the wedding feast. What did the wedding feast stand for in the
relationship of Awiyao and Lumnay in Daguios Wedding Dance?
A. village tradition B. love for each other C. desire to have a child D. patriarchal society
10. And far away in the middle of the fields a cow lowed softly in answer. What sense image is used in this excerpt
from Arguillas How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife?
A. visual B. olfactory C. tactile D. auditory
11. A little green snake slithered languidly into the tall grass a few yards from the kamansi tree. What does the snake
symbolize in Love in the Cornhusks?
A. betrayal B. temptation C. distrust D. lust
12. She was deep in the road before she became conscious of her shoes. In horror, she saw that they were coated with
thick, black clay. Gingerly she pulled off one shoe after the other with the hand still clutching the letter. What does
the underlined word in this excerpt from Love in the Cornhusks mean?
A. disgustedly B. carefully C. hurriedly D. determined
13. What historical time is Nick Joaquins May Day Eve set?
A. Japanese occupation C. Spanish regime
B. American time D. Martial law era
14. What symbol is used to link the events of the three generations in May Day Eve?
A. guardia sereno B. candle C. mirror D. midnight
15. How long is the span of the story May Day Eve?
A. one month B. almost 50 years C. overnight D. 3 years
16. What does Magnificence refer to in Alfons story?
A. the girls innocence C. the fathers protectiveness
B. Vicentes kindness and generosity D. the mothers comforting presence
17. There was nothing to fear, for the man was always so gentle, so kind. What literary device is employed in this line
from Magnificence?
A. foreshadowing B. en medias res C. symbolism D. flashback
18. What is Cordero-Fernandos view on the educational system in The Visitation of the Gods?
A. She hates the rotten side of the system. C. She is proud of the administrators.
B. She questions the role of educators. D. She upholds quality education.
19. What character of Miss Noel is revealed in this statement? Sir, during the five years that I ve taught I ve done my
best to live to my ideals. Yet, I please nobody. Its the same old narrow conformism and favor-curriying.
A. militant B. stubborn C. idealistic D. pessimistic
20. It was not quite five, and the bread was not yet ready. What does the bread symbolize in N.V.M. Gonzales Bread
of Salt?
A. The boys unreciprocated love for Aida.
B. The embarrassment of the boy in the presence of Aida.
C. The boys dream of becoming a famous violinist.
D. The differences in the social status between Aida and the boy.
21. I felt all ardor for her gone from me entirely. What epiphany does the character experience in N.V.M. Gonzales
Bread of Salt?
A. The boy did not like Aidas aristocratic upbringing. C. He has found another girl to love.
B. His love for Aida was but an infatuation. D. Aida did not like him.
22. Which is an olfactory image?
A. The sun had sunk and down from the wooded sides of the Katayagan hills shadows were stealing into the fields.
B. He swallowed and brought up to his mouth more cud and the sound of his insides was like a drum.
C. The thick unpleasant smell of dangla bushes and cooling sun-heated earth mingled with the clean, sharp scent of
arrais roots exposed to the night air and of the hay inside the cart.
D. The wind whistled against my cheeks and the rattling of the wheels on the pebbly road echoed in my ears.
23. Which story shows the conflict of person vs. self?
A. The Visitation of the Gods C. May Day Eve
B. The Virgin D. Magnificence
24. Which of the following stories is in medias res?
A. Love in the Cornhusks C. Dead Stars
B. Wedding Dance D. The Small Key
25. Which story uses the first person narrator point of view?
A. Bread of Salt C. The Visitation of the Gods
B. How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife D. Harvest
26. Which story is a satire?
A. The Virgin C. The Visitation of the Gods
B. Wedding Dance D. Harvest
27. In which story does the main character experience epiphany?
A. Visitation of the Gods C. Bread of Salt
B. How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife D. The Small Key
28. Which among these objects is a phallic symbol in literature?
A. key B. cornhusks C. Waig D. pencil
29. Which story has a circular plot?
A. Dead Stars B. May Day Eve C. Magnificence D. Harvest
30. Which is not characteristic of a story of local color?
A. mores and traditions of a particular locality C. bias and prejudice of characters
B. description of the local setting D. politeness and address markers
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31. The figure of speech implied in this line from Alfon s Forever Witches: MARING: Bastos! I know what you really
wanted to say. Pusa ka din!!”
A. metaphor B. pun C. personification D. hyperbole
32. What does Gonzalo mean by a little longer in this excerpt from Guerrero s Three Rats?
Adrian: (Laughing): I expect to live a little longer, Gonzalo.
Gonzalo: A little longer is right. (Adrians face slowly begins to get red. He feels a giddiness in his head he
presses his temples.)
A. He wants Adrian to apologize for his affair with Nita. C. Adrian is getting drunk and incoherent.
B. The cyanide in Adrians coffee is taking effect. D. His wifes infidelity makes him suffer in silence.
33. Gonzalo: I attach myself to nothing and to nobody. What character trait does Gonzalo reveal in this excerpt from
Guerreros Three Rats?
A. shyness B. indifference C. pride D. boldness
34. Montanos Sabina opens with this scene
A. novena prayers for the dead C. confrontation between Sabina & Mr. George
B. burial of Sabinas mother, Maria D. Sabina lighting the lamp
35. A bamboo flute is heard far away. Once more we hear the turtle crying. What sense imagery is used in this
description of the scene?
A. visual B. auditory C. tactile D. olfactory
36. What is the tone of the fathers statement in this line from Florentino s The Dancers? FATHER: (mimicking her).
Shes still a baby! Im telling you, shes old enough to have a
Baby!
A. bitter B. sarcastic C. thrilled D. hopeful
37. Which comic technique is used in Aganas NewYorker in Tondo?
A. mistaken identity C. reversal of fortune
B. physical blunder D. ridiculous situation
38. This play is a satire
A. Forever Witches C. The Husband of Mrs. Cruz
B. The Dancers D. Sabina
39. Which of the following plays is a farce?
A. Forever Witches C. The Husband of Mrs. Cruz
B. The Dancers D. Sabina
40. This play is naturalistic in orientation
A. Sabina C. The Dancers
B. Forever Witches D. Three Rats
41. The rhyme scheme in Villas Sonnet 1
A. quatrain B. couplet C. octave D. sestet
42. What characteristic of poetry is referred to by the line It must be slender as a bell in Villa s
Sonnet 1?
A. rhyme & rhythm C. form & structure
B. figurative language D. imagery
43. What emotion is expressed in these lines from Manalang-Gloria s Poems? The madcap
inspirations, bent/On flinging stars about,/Contrive to break away before/I know that they are
out
A. confusion B. excitement C. awe D. fear
44. What figure of speech is used in this line from Alvero s poem? Could Gods refuse/Such
tempting wine?
A. apostrophe B. rhetorical question C. allusion D. metaphor
45. This line is an example of personification
A. And hold secret a birds flowering C. And so while thoughts went to and fro
B. Seeking a truer heaven in/The loved deep D. to teach the trees all that I could
AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
1. According to this religion human beings are bound to the wheel of life which is a continual cycle of birth, death, and
suffering.
A. Hinduism B. Buddhism C. Shintoism D. Taoism
2. __________ is a collection of sacred hymns in archaic Sanskrit which exalt the deities who personify various natural
and cosmic phenomena.
A. Dhammapada B. Upanishads C. Bhagavad Gita D. Rigveda
3. This is a story of a learned Brahman named Vishnusarman who used animal fables to instruct the three dull-witted
sons of a king.
A. Panchatantra C. Gitanjali
B. The Little Clay Cart D. On Learning to be an Indian
4. __________ dominates every scene in a Sanskrit drama and allows the audience to take part in the play and be one
with the characters.
A. artha B. rasa C. kama D. moksha
5. What is the rhythmical development of this excerpt from the Rigveda, The Hymn of Man?
When they divided Purusa, how many portions did them make?
Time is a Pair of Scissors
What do they call his mouth, his arms? What do they call his thighs and feet?
The Brahman was his mouth, of both arms was Rajanya made. Ping Hsin
His thighs became Vaisya, from his feet the Sudra was produced.
And life, a bolt of brocade
Section by section the brocade is cut;
A. free verse B. quatrain C. couplet D. octave
When the last section is done
The scraps are committed to a bonfire.
Read the poem by Ping Hsin then answer questions 6 7
6. What figure of speech is used in the title? Time is an iron whip,
A. simile C. personification And life, a tree full of blossoms.
One by one the flowers are lashed off;
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When the last on is gone,
The fallen petals are trampled into the dirt and sand.
B. metaphor D. hyperbole
7. What is the central idea of the poem?
A. cruelty of time C. destruction of beauty
B. impermanence of life D. beauty of nature
Read the excerpt below from Chinua Achebes The Voter then answer questions 15 16.
We have a Minister from our village, one of our own sons. He said to a group
of elders in the house of Ogbuefi Exenwa, a man of high traditional title,
What honour can a village have? Do you ever stop to ask yourself why we
5
should be single our of this honour? I will tell: it is because we are favoured by
the leaders of PAP. Whether we cast our paper for Marcus or not PAP will
continue to rule. Think of the pipe-borne water they have promised us
Besides Roof and his assistant, there were five elders in the room. An old
hurricane with a cracked sooty glass chimney gave out yellowish light in their
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midst. The elders sat on very low stools. On the floor, directly in front of them,
lay two shilling pieces. Outside the moon kept a straight face. We believe
every word you say to be true, said Ezenwa. We shall every one of us drop
his paper for Marcus. Who would leave an ozo feast and go to a poor ritual
mean? Tell Marcus he has our papers, and our wives papers, too. But what we
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do say is that two shillings is shameful. He brought the lamp close and tilted
it at the moment before him as if to make sure he had not mistaken its value.
Yes, two shillings, it is shameful. If Marcus were a poor man which our
ancestors forbid I should be the first to give him my paper free, as I did before.
But today Marcus is a great man. We did not ask him for money yesterday; we
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have climbed the iroko tree today and would be foolish not to take down all the
firewood we need.
ANSWER KEY
Philippine Literature in English
1. A 6. A 11. B 16. D 21. B 26. C
2. C 7. A 12. B 17. A 22. C 27. C
3. D 8. D 13. C 18. A 23. B 28. D
4. A 9. A 14. C 19. C 24. A 29. B
5. B 10. D 15. B 20. D 25. A 30. C
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31. B 34. A 37. D 40. C 43. B
32. B 35. B 38. C 41. B 44. B
33. B 36. B 39. A 42. C 45. C
Afro-Asian Literature
1. B 5. C 9. A 13. D 17. C
2. D 6. B 10. A 14. A 18. C
3. A 7. A 11. B 15. C 19. A
4. B 8. D 12. B 16. D 20. B
2. N be UW (= uninflected word),
where the uninflected word is an ADVERBIAL such as here, there, up, down, in, out, inside, upstairs,
downstairs, on, off, now, then, yesterday, and tomorrow. Be has the meaning of be located or occur.
The meeting was yesterday.
3. N1 be N1 where the superscript means that the two nouns have the same referent. The second noun following the
be verb is also a subject complement, in particular a PREDICATE NOUN or PREDICATE NOMINATIVE.
Her neighbor is my cousin.
5. N1 TrV (= transitive V) N2
where N2 does not have the same referent as N 1. N2 is called the direct object of the verb, the receiver of
the action.
The girl buys yellow roses.
6. N1 TrV N2 N3
where the superscripts 1, 2, and 3 indicate that each noun has a different referent.
Mother gave a gift to the orphan. (usually reads as Mother gave the orphan a gift.)
Two noun objects occur after the verb. Still N2 is the direct object and N3 is the indirect object. If we omit the last noun,
the pattern is identical to that in item 5. Note that the indirect object is preceded by the preposition to (sometimes for or
of). If the two objects are inverted, the preposition disappears.
He made a toy house for her.
He made her a toy house.
7. } N2
} Adj
} Pronoun
N1 TrV N2 } Adv (of place), uninflected
} Verb, present participle
} Verb, past participle
There are a choice of different forms in sentence final position. These are illustrated as follows:
The class voted Henry secretary.
The principal found the gardener efficient.
We considered the writer you.
The teacher directed them outside.
She saw them praying.
I imagine my father overworked.
The most common illustration of this sentence pattern is one with the occurrence of a final N 2.
NOUNS
Nouns can be recognized by means of the following characteristics:
1. They are names of entities -- a person, place, thing, of idea.
2. They have two inflections, the plural {-es} and the possessive (sometimes called the genitive) {- s}. Both inflections
have various allomorphs
/əz/ appears after morphs ending in sibilants or affricates / s, z, š, ž, č j /
/s/ appears after morphs ending in voiceless consonants / p, t, k, f, Ɵ /,
except the sibilants and affricate / s, š, č /
/z/ appears after morphs ending in vowels and voiced consonants / b, d, g, v,
ð, m, n, ŋ, l, r. y, w /, except the sibilants and the affricate / z, ž, j /
3. They may be marked by noun-forming derivational suffixes added to bases or stems, usually belong to other parts of
speech, e.g.
added to verbs
{-age} breakage
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{-ee} employee
added to adjectives
{-ity} facility
{-ness} happiness
added to other nouns
{-cy} advocacy
{-ian} librarian
{-ship} friendship
4. They fill certain characteristic positions in relation to other parts of speech in phrases and sentences.
just before a verb
Red roses bloom in my garden.
after determiners such as articles, demonstratives, and possessive adjectives, e.g. the examination, these
reviewees, my handouts
5. Unlike other languages, gender is not an important feature of English grammar. Gender is only marked in certain
pairs of nouns, e.g. waiter/waitress, host/hostess
6. Certain superfixes occasionally identify nouns from other parts of speech as in: récòrd and rècórd. These two words
are morphemically alike; however, we identify the stress pattern / ˊ ˋ / as a noun.
7. Nouns can serve as heads in a noun phrase. As heads they may be preceded by one or more single-word modifiers
and followed by a phrasal or clausal modifier or both
the small study table in my room which my father bought
Functions of Nouns
subject of verbs Several items have ambiguous stems.
direct objects of verbs They administered the test.
indirect objects of verbs The lecturer provided the participants handouts.
subject noun predicates/ We are LET reviewers.
predicate nouns
object noun predicates/ The reviewees chose him their representative.
object complements
objects of prepositions in our review class
appositives The LET, a professional examination, is conducted every year.
vocatives/nouns of address Anne, how did you find the exam?
Noun Types
1. common: nouns referring to a kind of person, thing, or idea
Count nouns, which take the plural inflection
Mass/noncount nouns, which dont take the plural inflection
2. proper nouns: names for unique individuals or places
3. collective nouns: able to take either singular or plural verbs forms, depending on the interpretation given to
the noun, i.e, whether it is seen as a unit or as a collection of individuals
The team has won all its games.
The team have won awards in their respective events.
ARTICLES
Articles are a subclass of determiners, which are noun-marking words. They usually come before the nouns they modify.
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Identification of a class, especially in a
With institutions and practices
generalization,
Before few and little to mean felt to be unique
5 followed by a noun, or an adjective
some but not many 0Offices open at 7 oclock.
The youth is the hope of the future.
0Dinner is usually late.
the physically challenged
PRONOUNS
Most pronouns stand for, refer to, or replaces a noun or a noun phrase within a text; hence, they occupy the same
position as a noun or noun phrase does. The word or words that a pronoun stands for are its antecedent or reference.
My brother holds dual citizenship. He is not only a Filipino but also a Canadian citizen.
I and me stand for the speaker or writer.
I am a Filipino, but I am living in Australia now.
Pronouns can also be a direct reference to an outside situation (e.g., What is that? in response to a sound or noise).
Kinds of Pronouns
There are many different kinds of pronouns: subject, object, possessive, reflexive, demonstrative and others. The forms
within each category are distinguished by number (singular/plural), person (first/second/third) gender
(masculine/feminine/neuter), and in the case of demonstratives, by number and proximity.
Things to remember:
1. Animals closely related to people can be referred to by he, him, and his or she, her, and hers.
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The dog loves his/her/its master.
2. Use it and its to refer to inanimate objects except ships, which are always referred as she.
3. Countries and schools are sometimes referred matter are sometimes referred to by she or her.
4. Traditionally, the pronouns he, him, and his have been used for mixed groups or groups in which the sex is
unknown. Many people now object to this use, so they use both the masculine and feminine forms or the plural
forms to avoid the problem.
Everybody submitted his or her assignment. (awkward)
All the students submitted their assignments. (acceptable)
5. If I, me, my or mine or their plural counterparts are part of a pair or a series, put them last.
The teacher confiscated his toy and mine, too.
Father helped Tony with his project, and he will help my sister and me with ours tomorrow.
Reflexive Pronouns
1. Use the reflexive pronoun as the object of the verb form or preposition to refer to the subject of the sentence.
The baby is able to feed itself.
Luis cut himself with a razor blade.
2. The phrase by + self or its emphatic form all by + self means alone or without any help.
I crossed the river (all) by myself.
Intensive Pronouns
The intensive form occurs directly after the word it modifies or at the end of the clause.
The mayor herself distributed the relief goods.
The mayor distributed the relief goods herself.
Reciprocal Pronouns
1. The reciprocal pronoun forms are each other and one another. They means that each part of the subject did the
action and also received the action.
2. They must be objects of verb forms or objects of prepositions.
3. Some prefer to use each other for two people or things and one another for more than two.
The two finalists congratulated each other for making it to the top.l
The class members prepared surprise gifts for one another during the Christmas party.
Demonstrative Pronouns
1. Demonstrative pronouns occur alone. They do not precede nouns.
This is my favorite movie.
2. Demonstrative pronouns can show distance or contrast not connected with distance.
This is mine; that is yours over there. (distance)
Which ones do you prefer, these or those? (contrast)
Indefinite Pronouns
none another
anyone everyone someone
Personal no one other ones
anybody everybody somebody
nobody others
another
everything nothing
NonPersonal anything something other ones
every one none
others
Use singular verbs with compound pronouns and use singular pronouns to refer to them in formal writing.
Formal: Nobody brought his book today.
Informal: Nobody brought their books today.
Relative pronouns
1. Relative pronouns (sometimes called clause markers) introduce dependent clauses (also called relative clauses).
2. Relative pronouns used in adjective clauses are who, whom, whose, which and that.
3. Who, whom, and whose are used for persons while which is used for non-persons.
The guest who came to dinner is the governor.
The book which I bought is a best seller.
4. That is a neutral form. It can be marked +human or human. In other words, it can be a substitute for both who
(+human) or which (-human).
The guest who/that came to dinner is the governor.
The book which/that I bought is a best seller.
5. In informal writing, whom is optional; in formal writing, whom must be used
Nora is the girl you saw in the party last night. (informal)
Nora is the girl whom you saw in the party last night. (formal)
6. That, which and whom are the only relative pronouns that can be left out.
The instrumental music (that) I like to hear often is that of Zamfir.
The house pests (which) I hate to see are the rodents and the cockroach.
7. Who, whom, and whose can be used in both essential and nonessential clauses.
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8. That instead of which is used only in essential or restrictive clauses, so do not put commas around clauses beginning
with that.
*The poster, that won first prize, pleased both the judges and the viewers.
9. Use which in nonessential or nonrestrictive clauses. Separate nonessential clauses from the rest of the sentence
by commas.
Our car, which has been running for three days, should be brought to the machine shop for check-up.
10. Relative pronouns used in noun clauses are that, what, whatever, whoever,
whomever, and whichever.
Whatever you offer will be appreciated. (noun clause as subject)
He will befriend whoever he gets acquainted with. (noun clause as direct object)
11. Look at the antecedent of who, that or which when used as subject to decide
whether the verb following should be singular or plural.
The painting which is exhibited is the painters masterpiece.
The farmers who own orchards earn much from their harvest.
PREPOSITIONS
Prepositions are notoriously difficult for ESL learners for several reasons.
1. Several English prepositions are realized as a single form in the learner s first language.
Pumunta kami sa palengke. (We went to the market).
Lumangoy kami sa ilog. (We swam in the river.)
Sa kalye ang gulo. (The commotion occurred on the street.)
Antayin mo ako sa kanto. (Meet me at the street corner.)
2. The English preposition is not necessarily realized by a single word. There are complex forms like because of and
in spite of or coalesced forms like into and onto.
3. Certain prepositions co-occur with verbs, adjectives, and nouns to form clusters.
to substitute for to be afraid of
in favor of awareness of
4. English prepositions are polysemous. They bear varied meanings.
Throw the at the wall. (space)
It rains at night. (time)
Water freezes at 00C. (degree)
Shes good at dancing. (idiomatic)
Meanings of Prepositions
1. Many prepositions prototypically deal with locating objects in space involving two or more entities. One entity is
for foregrounding, while the other serves as background. The former is the figure and the latter is the landmark.
In
Throw the ball at the wall.
figure landmark
2. Note the following figure
at on in
by ↕ ↕ ↕ through
with about
under over
from off out of
From, off, and out of are source prepositions involving the notion of separation from place. From denotes
separation from a point of orientation, off denotes separation from contact with line or surface, and out of,
separation from inside a landmark.
We walked from the gate to the waiting shed.
The box fell off the table.
Take the ball out of the box.
By and with are proximity prepositions, which locate the figure in relation to a point of orientation marked by
the preposition at. By denotes the idea of connection while with denotes both a point of orientation and the
idea of connection. In its spatial sense, with can occur only with animate nouns as landmark.
He stood by me in all throughout the campaign.
He rides with me to our place of work.
Through and about require the landmark to the seen as a surface or a volume and are there positioned in the
diagram above next to in. Through structures space as a tunnel or channel. About denotes spatial movement
in any direction.
Move the other side of the mountain through the tunnel.
He walked briskly about the yard for his morning exercise.
Under and over are vertical space preposition. Under denotes a figure at a lower point than the landmark.
Over denotes a figure that is at a higher point than the landmark.
Dont keep your shoes under the table.
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We watched the game over the fence.
VERBS
A verb can be recognized by means of the following characteristics:
Denotes an action (e.g., read) or a state of being (e.g. know). Action verbs are dynamic. State of being verbs (or
stative verbs) include the copula or linking verbs, e.g. the be-verbs, remain, appear, and become.
Has four inflections
- {-s} of third person singular present tense verbs
- {-ed} of simple past tense verbs
- {-en} of the past participle
- {-ing} of the present participle
The third person singular –s has the same allomorphs as the noun plural and the noun possessive.
The –ed past tense inflection has three allomorphs:
- / əd / after morphs which end in / t / or / d / as in planted, raided
- / t / after morphs that end in voiceless sounds except / t / as in
brushed, jumped, walked
- / d / after morphs which end in voiced sounds except / d / as in cleaned, grabbed, agreed
Follows a subject noun and may be followed in turn by adjectives
}______ eager [to enhance their knowledge].
The reviewees }______ seriously.
}______ their handouts.
May fall under one more or more of these types
intransitive verbs, which does not take an object (direct)
Flowers bloom.
transitive verbs, which require an object (direct)
Flowers need water and sunlight.
ditransitive verbs, which take two objects (direct and indirect)
Alex gave his girlfriend three red roses.
linking/copula verbs, where what follows the verb relates back to the subject (subject complement -- a
predicate noun or a predicate adjective)
Roses are lovely Valentines Day gifts.
Roses are sweet.
complex transitive verbs, where what follows the object (direct) relates to the object
They chose Niña, muse of the team.
prepositional verbs, which requires a preposition phrase to be complete
We looked at the pictures taken during our graduation
Have tense and aspect qualities. Tense and aspect have to do with form. TENSE is the grammatical marking on
verbs that usually indicates time reference relative to either the time of speaking or the time at which some other
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situation was in force (Jacobs 1995). Time reference has to do with meaning. Events and situations are located
in time, perhaps to our speaking about them, perhaps while we are speaking about them, or perhaps at some
later time. English has three tenses present, past, and future. The present and the past tenses have inflectional
markings, while the future is marked by the inclusion of the modals will or shall. Simply put, tense is a set of
verb forms that indicate a particular point in time or period of time in the past, present, or future.
ASPECT is a general name given to verb forms used to signify certain ways in which an event is viewed or
experienced. Aspect can view an event as completed whole (simple), or whether or not it has occurred earlier
(perfect aspect) or is still in progress (progress).
Noel has attended the review classes. (perfect)
Now he is studying for the LET exam. (progressive)
The tenses in combination with aspects make up the following 12 tense-aspect categories. These make up the
traditional 12 tenses.
Sometimes, if we want to draw attention to the time of the action, we use an ADJUNCT OF TIME, which can be an
adverb, a noun group, or a prepositional phrase, e.g..:
Shes coming tomorrow. (adverb)
Results of the examination were released last week. (noun group)
He will feel relieved after the exam. (prepositional phrase)
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I have read the book several times.
2. Past Perfect: Events before a particular time in the past
To talk about a past event or situation that occurred before a particular time in the past
By noon, students had gathered at the quadrangle with their placards.
3. Future Perfect
To refer to something that has not happened yet, but will happen before a particular time in the future.
By the time he graduates, his parents will already have left for New Zealand
Perfect-Progressive Aspect
1. Present perfect progressive
a. To talk about an activity or situation that started at some time in the past, continued, and is still
happening now.
The economy has been declining in many parts of the world.
2. Past perfect progressive
a. To emphasize the recentness and duration of a continuous activity which took place before a particular
time in the past.
The old woman had been living alone in that dilapidated house.
b. To say that something was expected, wished for, or intended before a particular time in the past.
I had been expecting a phenomenal rise in his political career.
3. Future perfect progressive
a. To emphasize the duration to an event at a specific time in the future
By January 2011, she will have been serving this university for 38 years.
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3. Operators/operator verbs
The operator is a verb that has three main functions: 1) It precedes the negative and combines with it
when the negative is contracted to nt; 2) It is the verb that moves around the subject to the sentence
initial position in yes-no questions; and 3) It is also the verb that appears in the tag phrases of
interrogative sentences or tag questions.
My father will not approve your marriage proposal.
My father won t approve your marriage proposal.
Will your father approve my marriage proposal?
Will your father not approve my marriage proposal?
Won t your father approve my marriage proposal?
Your father will approve my marriage proposal, won t he?
When a clause contains no verb eligible to be an operator, do is introduced.
He attends the graduation ball tonight.
He does attend the graduation ball tonight.
He does not attend the graduation ball tonight.
Does he attend the graduation ball tonight?
He attends the graduation ball tonight, doesn t he?
If there are two auxiliary or more auxiliary verbs present in the verb phrase, the first auxiliary serves as
the operator.
He has been reading the Obama autobiography.
He has not been reading the Obama autobiography.
*He has been not reading the Obama autobiography.
Has he been reading the Obama autobiography.
He has been reading the Obama autobiography, hasn t he?
VOICE
VOICE pertains to who or what serves the subject in a clause. In the active voice, the subject of a clause is most often
the agent, or doer, of some action. In the passive voice, the subject of a clause is the receiver or undergoer of the
action. The passive defocuses the agent. (Shibitani 1985 in Celce Murcia and Larsen-Freeman 2001)
The lifeguard saved the child. (active)
The child was saved [by the lifeguard]. (passive)
The passive voice is more limited than the active in that it requires only the transitive verbs verbs that take direct
objects.
The passive morphology is be . . . en, i.e., a form of the be verb + the past participle. Usually in passive sentences the
agent is not mentioned at all, referred to as the agentless passive. If the agent is mentioned (= agented passive), it
appears in a prepositional phrase marked by the preposition by.
When to use the passive presents the greatest challenge to ESL learners.
PHRASAL VERBS
These are verbs which consist of two or three words. They consists of:
1. a verb followed by an adverb;
go up, spill over, push through
2. a verb followed by a preposition; or
come upon, reckon with, bank on
3. a verb followed by an adverb and a preposition
break out of, look forward to, go along with
2. transitively
Lets cut pollution down to conserve our environment
3. both intransitively and transitively
A plane took off.
She took her coat off because it was warm.
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Meaning
A two-word verb often has a one-word synonym, which is generally more formal. Here are some examples:
Phrasal Verb Synonym Phrasal Verb Synonym
call up telephone give in/up surrender
keep on continue leave out omit
pick out choose put off postpone
ADJECTIVES
An adjective
1. Is a word which describes or denotes the qualities of something
2. Commonly occurs between a determiner and a noun, or after be or other linking verbs or immediately following
the intensifier very
the _____ baby seems (very) _____
the hungry baby seems (very) hungry
3. Is associated with certain derivational morphemes
{-y} healthy, leafy
{-al} racial, normal
{-able} understandable, visible
{-ed} aged, learned
{-ful/-less} hopeful, hopeless
{-ish} childish, boyish
{-ive} active, native
{-ous} famous, marvellous
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4. Has inflectional morphemes for comparative and superlative forms
pretty prettier prettiest
5. Modifies or complements nouns
the honest man (modifier)
The man is honest. (complement)
6. Has various types in terms of characteristic positions: ATTRIBUTIVE, which precede nouns, and PREDICATIVE,
which follow linking verbs
The diligent students pass the tough exam. (attributive)
They are happy with their high scores. (predicative)
The as . . . as construction is used to show that two things or groups are similar.
Ella is as tall as her mother.
COORDINATION
Conjunction or coordination is the process of combining ideas. Two constituents of the same type can be put together to
produce another larger constituent of the same type. Traditional grammar calls this process compounding.
Compound sentence: The boys sang and the girls danced last night.
Compound subject: The teacher and her students will join the parade.
Compound verb: The children play and eat during recess.
Compound object: We boiled corn and cassava.
Conjoining like constituents as shown above is referred to as simple coordination. Here are other ways of coordinating
ideas:
1. Ellipsis: Omission or elision of the first verb phrase in the second and adding the word too or either (for
uninverted forms), and so or neither (for inverted forms).
Affirmative forms
My friends like to read storybooks and I, too. (uninverted)
A horse runs fast, and so does an ostrich. (inverted)
Negative forms
Donna cant climb a tree, and his little brother cant, either. (uninverted)
Ducks cant fly high, and neither can chickens. (inverted)
Other forms of correlative conjunctions are either . . . or, not only . . . but also, and neither . . . nor. These pairs are
used together
Either Tony or Nico will top the test.
Anna is neither friendly nor generous.
Our teacher is not only competent but also very understanding.
A deeper and thorough study of each conjunction, however, reveals certain properties beyond the given straightforward
account. To illustrate, here are the other meaning and uses of and.
1. As logical operator (the truth-conditional meaning)
The entire conjoined statement is true so long as each conjunct that makes it up is true. If one conjunct is false,
then the statement is false.
2. As marker of many meanings
Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (2001) citing Posner (1980) provides these illustrations:
Annie is in the kitchen, and she is making doughnuts. (and there . . .)
Annie fell into a deep sleep, and her facial color returned. (and during this time . . .)
The window was open, and there was a draft. (and coming from it . . .)
Peter married Annie, and she had a baby. (and after that . . .)
Paul pounded on the stone, and he shattered it. (and thereby . . .)
Give me your picture, and Ill give you mine. (If you give me your picture, Ill give you mine .)
3. As inferential connective
A reader/listener can draw an inferential connection from sentences like Susan jumped and hurt her ankle. The
use of and invites the listener/reader to seek some other implicit relevant connection between stated conjuncts.
4. As marker of speaker continuation
In conversational discourse, sometimes a speaker uses and to signal that the utterance to follow is in some way
connected with what has come before. This particular use of and goes beyond the usual content conjunctive use;
rather it places and into the category of discourse markers like oh and well.
SUBORDINATION
SUBORDINATION means putting less important ideas in less important grammatical structures like dependent clauses.
One means of subordination is sentence combining or reducing.
Sentence combining
Melissa topped the test.
Melissa was late by twenty minutes.
Although late by twenty minutes, Melissa topped the test.
dependent clause independent clause
Although late, Melissa topped the test
dependent clause independent clause
Subordinating Conjunctions
Subordinating conjunctions do the job of connecting dependent clauses to independent clauses. Shown below are
different types.
Type Conjunction Type Conjunction
when, before, after,
time since, while, until, conditional if, unless
as
purpose in order to, so that reason because, since, as
although, though,
result so that concessive
while, despite
place where, wherever manner as, like
Relative clauses
Another form of subordination involves the embedding of one clause within another. For example:
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The lady came into the room.
The lady was small and slender.
The lady [the lady came into the room] was small and slender.
The lady who came into the room was small and slender.
The most common relative pronouns which mark relative clauses are: that, which, who, whom, and whose. Their uses
are presented earlier in the section on pronouns
NEGATION
In English, negation affects words, phrases, and sentences.
Determining which affix to use is not always predictable. However, the choice of im-, in-, il- or ir- is phonologically
conditioned by the consonant which follows it, i.e., im- is used if the following consonant is bilabial (b, p, m), il- goes with
a stem beginning with l, and ir- with a stem beginning with r. The prefix in- is the most common.
Nothing, nobody, and no one are indefinite pronouns while nowhere is an adverb.
Other negative items include never (negative adverb of frequency), nor (negative coordinating conjunction, and
neither . . . nor (negative correlative conjunction.
The basketball players never admitted their mistake.
They preschoolers can neither read nor write, nor can they comprehend do mathematical computations yet.
At the sentence level, not or its contraction nt is the main negator. This applies to different sentence types.
Mrs. Palma is not/isnt our teacher. (statement)
Are you not/Arent we meeting today? (question)
Do not/Dont laugh. (command)
Was it not/Wasnt it exciting! (exclamation)
No and not are negative substitutes. No can be a negative substitute for a whole sentence while not for a subordinate
clause.
A: Is she coming with us?
B: No. Shell do library work for an hour.
Are you joining us on Friday? If not, please let me know by tomorrow.
A: Is Pepito interested in the post?
B: Im afraid not. Hed rather be a plain member.
Placement of not
1. Not usually follows the be-verb, whether functions as a main verb (copula) or an auxiliary/helping verb.
Surprisingly today, the birds are not noisy. (main)
Im wondering why they are not chirping. (auxiliary verb)
2. Other than be, not follows the auxiliary verb if one is present or the first auxiliary (modal, phrasal modal, or have) if
there are two or more.
I cannot swim well.
The principal must not have been joking when he said that.
We have not been analyzing the data since we received them.
3. With other main verbs, a do-verb is introduced before negation can take place.
The child swims in the pool. The child does swim in the pool.
The child does not swim in the pool.
YES/NO QUESTIONS
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Inverted and Uninverted Yes/No Questions
YES/NO QUESTIONS are often defined as questions for which either yes or no is the expected answer. They are
produced with a rising intonation.
Yes/no questions are formed by inverting the subject and the operator.
Lucy is your cousin. Is Lucy your cóusin?
She can speak fluently. Can she speak flúently?
She has been a consistent debater. Has she been a consistent debáter?
She loves (= does love) to read opinion columns. Does she love to read opínion columns?
Yes/no questions may have a statement word order, i.e., the word order is uninverted. This sentence, however, is
likewise said with a rising intonation.
2
Lucy is your 3cousin3↑
2
She can speak 3fluently3↑
If the sentence contains more than one auxiliary verb, the short answer may also contain an auxiliary verb in addition to
the operator.
Will they have joined? {Yes, they will have.
{No, they wont have.
Does Álex plan a foreign trip with Melly? (or did someone else?)
Does Alex plán a foreign trip with Melly? (or did he only suggest?)
Does Alex plan a foreign tríp with Melly? (or is it something else?)
Does Alex plan a foreign trip with Mélly? (or is it with someone else?)
The focused sentence element gets the primary stress as shown above.
However, some is used in questions that expect a positive response, e.g., an offer:
Would you like some cold drink? (encourages a yes answer)
WH-QUESTIONS
WH-QUESTIONS are used to seek specific information so they are also referred to as information questions. Except for
how, these words begin with wh- : who, whose, whom, what, which, where, when, why, and how.
Forming Wh-Questions
If who, what, or which is the subject of the sentence, it is followed by the normal word order of a statement.
Whom/who, what and which as objects form questions by putting the wh-words first, and do, does, or did next.
Statement: He planted fruit trees.
Question: What did he plant?
Statement: Mothers bathes my baby sister.
Question: Who (Whom) does my mother bathe?
A modal (e.g., can) cannot be replaced by do, does, or did. The do-verb replaces the main verb.
Statement: My three-year-old sister can read.
Question: What can my sister do?
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ADVERBS
Adverbs modify or change the meaning of other words such as verbs, adjectives, another adverb, or even a whole
sentence.
The athlete can run fast. (verb modifier)
Sailboats are really beautiful to watch. (adjective modifier)
The athlete can run very fast. (adverb modifier).
Perhaps, Nenas family will give a party.(sentence modifier)
Kinds of adverbs
1. Adverbs of frequency: answer the question how often?
(always, never, usually, rarely)
2. Adverbs of relative time can be used with all tenses as meaning permits
(just, still, already, lately)
Where we put only makes a big change in the meaning of a clause. To illustrate:
1. Only he (no one else) invited Alex to join the team this year.
2. He only invited Alex to join the team this year this year. (not ordered)
3. He invited only Alex (no one but Alex) to join the team this year.
2. He invited Alex only to join the team this year. (to join, not to do anything else)
3. He invited Alex to join the team only this year. (Before an adverb of time, only means as recently as or at no
other time.)
Positions of Adverbials
While some adverbials are fixed in their positions in the sentence, others are movable. They can occur sentence initially,
medially, or finally.
Sentence-initial: Doubtlessly, we must conclude that the findings are correct.
Sentence-medial: We, doubtlessly, must conclude that the findings are correct.
Sentence-final: We must conclude that the findings are correct, doubtlessly.
Order of Adverbials
When two or more adverbials co-occur in final position in the same sentence, ordering should be observed.
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