civil war/exploration literature american literature

Civil War/Exploration Literature

American Literature

Explanation• The following questions are designed to help you prepare

for your Civil War/Exploration Literature Test.• The categories break down as follows:

– Vocab: assesses your understanding of vocabulary words from the literature selections in this unit

– “Owl Creek”: questions relating to Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”

– Non-Fiction: questions relating to the Gettysburg Address and the journal/diary entries

– “Frog”: questions relating to Mark Twain’s “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”

– “Fire”: questions relating to Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”

Categories Vocab “Owl Creek” Non-Fiction “Frog” “Fire”

100

200

300

400

500

600

100

200

300

400

500

600

100

200

300

400

500

600

100

200

300

400

100

200

300

400

500

600

Vocab 100

• This verb means “to explain or tell”

Vocab 100

• Apprise

Home

Vocab 200

• What are the meanings of the italicized words in the following sentence? “In the code of military etiquette, silence and fixity are forms of deference.”

Vocab 200

• Behavior (etiquette) and courtesy (deference)

Vocab 300

• What verb means “to control or restrict the rights of a person or group”?

Vocab 300

• Oppress

Vocab 400

• In “The Gettysburg Address,” Lincoln uses the word hallow to mean what?

Vocab 400

• Holy/Sacred

Vocab 500

• This adjective means “indescribable or overwhelming”

Vocab 500

• Ineffable

Vocab 600

• This proper noun is used by Ms. Bagley to describe her children.

Vocab 600

• TINY HUMANS

Owl Creek 100

• What activity opens the story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”?

Owl Creek 100

• A man is about to be hanged.

Owl Creek 200

• In “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” why does Farquhar hear his watch ticking as he dies?

Owl Creek 200

• His senses are heightened in the moments before his death.

Owl Creek 300

• In “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” which event happens FIRST?– Farquhar imagines reuniting with his wife.– Farquhar is approached by a Federal scout.– Farquhar’s board is released and he falls.– Farquhar dies of hanging.

Owl Creek 300

• Farquhar is approached by a Federal scout.

Owl Creek 400

• In “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” which event happens LAST?– Farquhar imagines reuniting with his wife.– Farquhar is approached by a Federal scout.– Farquhar’s board is released and he falls.– Farquhar dies of hanging.

Owl Creek 400

• Farquhar dies of hanging.

Owl Creek 500

• In “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” why does the Federal scout want to burn the bridge?

Owl Creek 500

• He doesn’t; he simply wants to set Farquhar up.

Owl Creek 600

• What must readers figure out in order to understand “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”?

Owl Creek 600

• The actual sequence of events (remember, the story is told out of order)

Non-Fiction 100

• What kind of document is Mary Chesnut’s “Civil War”?

Non-Fiction 100

• A diary

Non-Fiction 200

• What do you learn from Goss’s journal, “Recollections of a Private,” that you would not usually learn from a history book’s account of the Civil War?

Non-Fiction 200

• How a soldier feels/what he experiences as events are happening

Non-Fiction 300

• Why does Lincoln deliver “The Gettysburg Address”?

Non-Fiction 300

• To dedicate the battlefield in memory of the dead

Non-Fiction 400

• What event does Lincoln refer to when he says that “our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty” in “The Gettysburg Address”?

Non-Fiction 400

• The signing of the Declaration of Independence

Non-Fiction 500

• In “Recollections of a Private,” Goss says he stood before the recruiting office and reread the recruiting advertisement. He says, “I thought I might have made a mistake in considering war to serious after all.” What he means is that the advertisement made the war sound like _______?

Non-Fiction 500

• It might actually be a good/fun experience

Non-Fiction 600

• What is the “great task remaining before us” that Lincoln says Americans should dedicate themselves to?

Non-Fiction 600

• Preserving the United States

“Frog” 100

• What exaggeration about Jim Smiley does the narrator of “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” make?

“Frog” 100

• Smiley will bet on anything, on any side

“Frog” 200

• In “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” why does Smiley act uninterested when the stranger asks about the frog?

“Frog” 200

• He wants to trick him into betting

“Frog” 300

• In “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” what does the example of regional dialect “He roused up, and gave up, and gave me good day” mean?

“Frog” 300

• He stood up and said hello to me

“Frog” 400

• How would you restate this sentence from “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”?

“If there was a horse race, you’d find him flush or you’d find him busted at the end of it.”

“Frog” 400

• At the end of a horse race, either he’d have won big or lost everything

“Fire” 100

• What is the primary type of conflict in “To Build a Fire”?

“Fire” 100

• Man versus Nature

“Fire” 200

• What information at the beginning of “To Build a Fire” foreshadows that the man will soon be in trouble?

“Fire” 200

• The fact that it is much colder outside than he thinks it is.

“Fire” 300

• What does London suggest when he writes, “the dog did not know anything about thermometer… But the brute had its instinct” in “To Build A Fire”?

“Fire” 300

• The dog doesn’t need a device/tool to tell him how cold it is.

“Fire” 400

• What part of “To Build a Fire” represents the non-weather-related external conflict in the story?

“Fire” 400

• The fact that the man does not acknowledge the dog’s anxious/odd behavior.

“Fire” 500

• Why does the man in “To Build a Fire” finally put aside his panic about freezing to death?

“Fire” 500

• He wants to die with dignity if he cannot survive the cold

“Fire” 600

• What internal conflict does the man experience towards the end of “To Build a Fire”?

“Fire” 600

• Hope for survival versus acceptance of death