English 9: 4th quarter exams reviewer

I. Romeo and Juliet

a. A tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-
crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families.

II. Come up from the Fields, Father

a. A poem written by Walt Whitman on the impact and effects the involvement in the
war has on the soldiers’ families. A letter is sent to Pete's family in his name but not
in his hand writing describing the horrible injuries that have occurred to him but also
the fact that he will be alright.

III. The Gettysburg Adress

a. On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered remarks, which later
became known as the Gettysburg Address, at the official dedication ceremony for
the National Cemetery of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, on the site of one of the
bloodiest and most decisive battles of the Civil War. Though he was not the featured
orator that day, Lincoln’s brief address would be remembered as one of the most
important speeches in American history. In it, he invoked the principles of human
equality contained in the Declaration of Independence and connected the sacrifices
of the Civil War with the desire for “a new birth of freedom,” as well as the all-
important preservation of the Union created in 1776 and its ideal of self-government.

IV. The Man with the Hoe

a. Inspired by a painting by Millet, Edwin Markham wrote “The Man with the Hoe” to
draw attention to the plight of those forced into lifelong labor and poverty. He
describes a man whose spirit has been broken by toil and compares his hopeless
existence with the sacred image in which God supposedly created humanity.

V. Active and passive voice

a. Voice – refers to the form of the verb that shows whether the subject is performing
the action or not.
b. Active voice – the subject performs the action and it gives a direct and more concise
meaning. Its normal structure is subject + verb + object.
c. Passive voice – the subject is acted upon by the object of the verb. Its normal
structure is object + verb + subject.
d. Passive voice is used when:
• You don’t want to say who or what did the action.
• You don’t know who did the action.
• The object is the most important part of the sentence.
e. Steps to convert a sentence in the active voice to the passive voice:
• Identify the subject, the verb, and the object.
• Move the object to become the new subject of the sentence.
• Identify the verb tense in the active sentence.
• Conjugate the verb ‘be’
• Add the past participle of the main verb after ‘be’.
• Decide whether to include the subject in the active sentence in your passive
sentence.
VI. Modal verbs
a. Modals – special verbs which behave very differently from normal verbs. These
are used as auxiliary or helping verbs with special functions.
• Shall – indicates simple futurity and obligation.
• Should – expresses past obligation.
• Will – expresses simple futurity and willingness.
• Would – expresses invitation or past possibility.
• Might – is used in reported speech for past time.
• May – expresses feature possibilities mixed with doubt and uncertainty.
• Must – expresses obligation.
• Need – indicates necessity.
• Should and Ought to – express a sense of obligation to do or to become
something.
• Shouldn't or Should not have or Ought not – indicate prohibition or
disapproval of something that was done in the past.

VII. Direct and indirect speech

a. Direct speech – shows a person’s exact words. Quotation marks (“..”) are a sign
that the words are the same words that a person used.
• Maria asked, “Where are you going?”
• John replied, “I am going home.”
b. Reported speech – puts the speaker’s words or ideas into a sentence without
quotation marks.
• Maria asked about where you were going.
• John said that he was going home.
c. Changes that must be made to a sentence when you use reported speech:
• Verb tenses
• Questions and word order
• Pronoun changes
• Place and time word changes
• Infinitives
VIII. Prosodic features of speech
a. Also known as suprasegmental features, it is the aspect of speech that involves
sounds.
b. Main components:
• Stress – words that receive the most emphasis and is the rhythm of the
language. It is pronounced with a greater amount of energy.
• Pitch – tension of the vocal chord and is the highness or lowness of speech.
• Intonation – it’s the rise and fall of the pitch or pattern of pitch. It is also the
movement of the voice.
• Tone – it is how something is being said which can be influenced by one’s
attitude. It can change the meaning of the word based on a person’s
emotion.
• Tempo – the relative speed or slowness and duration of pauses in a
sentence. Without this, sentences can lose emphasis and it will be hard to
pronounce words.

IX. Stage or play vocabulary terms

a. Blocking – the planning and working out of the movements of actors on stage.
b. Cross – a movement from one part of the stage to another.
c. Position – the direction an actor is facing relative to the audience, but from the
actor’s perspective.
d. Gesture – an expressive movement of the body or limbs.
e. Tableau – a silent and motionless depiction of a scene created by actors, often
from a picture.
f. Protagonist – the central or main figure of a story
g. Rising action – the part of a plot consisting of complications and discoveries that
create conflict.
h. Enunciation – the clear and precise pronunciation of words.
i. Plot – the ordered structure of a play as the action progresses through the story.
j. Antagonist – a person or a situation that opposes the protagonist’s goals or
desires.
k. Conflict – opposition of persons or forces giving rise to dramatic action.
l. Crisis – a decisive point in the plot of a play on which the outcome of the
remaining action depends.
m. Climax – the point of greatest dramatic tension in a theatrical work.
n. Exposition – detailed information revealing the facts of a plot.

X. Play review
a. Introduction – should include the name of the play, the playwright, and where the
performance was, including the date.
b. Plot – try to give a brief description of the story.
c. Themes and issues – outline the important themes and issues of the play. You
should also discuss the director’s interpretation of the play and how the style and
form of the play communicates the play’s themes.
d. Analyse characters – describe and analyze the characters. (Often the main two)
and talk about the character’s motivation or objectives.
e. Evaluate the performer – choose two performers and evaluate their performance.
f. Elements of the production – discuss how effective you think the use of sound,
lighting, set and costume were in the performance.