English 102: Mid-Term Exam Fall 2002

Specifications and Suggestions

Exam Format and Directions: The directions here are copied directly from the exam itself.

• Multiple Choice Questions: 20 @ 1 point=20 points
•  Directions: For each, choose the best response. (1 point each)
• Matching Questions: 20 @ 1 point=20 points
• Directions: Match the character with the description. No character is used more than once, but some characters may not be used at all. Any unclear or ambiguous letters will be marked as incorrect. (1 point each)
• Identifications: 6 @ 5 points=30 points
• Directions: For each of the following quotes, do the following: a. Identify the source of the quote by title and/or author (1 pt); b. Identify the speaker of the quote (1 pt); c. Identify the context of the quote--what is happening in the story at the time of the quote (1 pt); d. Describe the significance of the quote to the story--does it bring up a prominent idea, theme, symbol, ideology, etc? (2 pts)
• Sample:
• Quote: "Zachary smiles, and I wonder if he's feeling different. Because standing out here waist deep in Gossimer Lake, next to my best friend, I'm feeling different--light and good and maybe even holy."
• Response: This quote is from Kimberly Willis Holt's When Zachary Beaver Came to Town. The narrator, Toby, is the speaker, and he is describing his feelings toward the book's end when he and his friends have just finished baptizing Zachary Beaver. It is significant because it shows the culmination of the theme of baptism in the book. Here, we see Toby feeling renewed after having felt depressed because he hadn't lived up to his obligations to Cal when Wayne died.
• Contrasting Quotations: 2 @ 15 points=30 points
• Directions: Each of the following is a pairing of two quotations from the texts we have read. Identify each quote (title/author and context), then write a coherent paragraph that articulates the connections which you see between the ideas, themes, or symbols raised by the quotations. What similarities and differences do you see in the ways the two texts treat the common idea? Explain the significance of those similarities and differences in terms of the texts' ideologies. (15 points each)
• Remember the quotes from Harry Potter and Zachary Beaver from class? That's what you're being asked to do in this section of the exam.
• Total: 100 points

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Exam Coverage:

• Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
• L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Kimberly Willis Holt, When Zachary Beaver Came to Town
• Lowell Swortzell, The Mischief Makers
• Sandra Asher, The Wise Men of Chelm
• Lisa Loomer, Bocon!
• Kathryn Miller, A Thousand Cranes

• Identification details: author, title, date
• Principal characters
• Basic plot elements: what happens, when it happens, to whom it happens
• Themes and ideas: review ideas, themes, symbols that were raised by class discussions
• Ideological analyses: what apparent ideologies can be seen in the texts? Do the texts operate in a way that invites mimetic or semiotic interpretation? What do the fictional texts say about the way the "real world" operates? What real world tensions or anxieties show up in the fiction? How does the time and place of the fiction's creation affect the ways that we interpret and/or critique the apparent ideologies we see?