GHSGT Review Packet

8/3/2019 GHSGT Review Packet

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GHSGT Review Packet

American Literature: Time Periods and Themes

Early American Fiction (1492 -1789):

Native American Lit: oral tradition, creation myths, reverence for nature. Explorers:journal entries, nonfiction, an accounting to the king/patron financingthe expedition. Christopher Columbus, Captain John Smith

Early Colonial Period:

Puritan Lit (1600s):New England, religious in nature, emphasis on workethic, sermons, ask God to solve your problems, life is a test between good and evil.

Anne Bradstreet, Jonathan Edwards

Slave Lit (1700s):narratives describing slave experiences. OlaudahEquiano, Phyllis Wheatley

Revolutionary Period (1776 - 1820): political writing on justice and freedom,almanacs, satire, mock epics. Themes related to: Age of Reason/Enlightenment,

common sense, scientific investigation rather than religious doctrine, democracyinstead of monarchy. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry

Romanticism (1820 - 1860): reaction to the Age of Reason, novels, poems, shortstories, heroic characters. Themes related to: intuition ruled over fact, imaginationdominated, emphasis on individualism and the common man, nature or the naturalworld. Nathaniel Hawthorn, Edgar Allen Poe,Herman Melville, Henry WadsworthLongfellow, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, James Fennimore Cooper

Transcendentalism (1840 -1855): stressed individualism, and mature and self-reliance. Themes: God is in nature, Nature and man are basically good, death is just apart of life, go to nature to heal and become rejuvenated. Ralph Waldo Emerson,

Henry David Thoreau

Anti-Transcendentalism (1840-1855): (Dark Romantics): Man is basically evil(Original Sin), Nature (woods) are full of sin/Satan; intense guilt; insanity andhallucinations. Washington Irving, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne

Realism & Naturalism (1860 - 1914): began with the Civil War (1861 -1865) andended with the beginning of WWI (1914 -1918); reaction to Romanticism. Realism: realistic writings, humor, social problems, a look at America as it reallyis -dirt and all. Mark Twain, Henry James Naturalism: an extreme of Realism, Nature is beautiful but savage, characterslives are shaped by forces they cannot control. Stephen Crane, Jack London

Modernism & Experimentation (1914 - 1945): highly experimental, rejecting thetraditional, authors seek a unique style of writing, loss of the American Dream. F. ScottFitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Frost, John Steinbeck Harlem Renaissance (1920s):celebration of arts in the Harlem community,blues/jazz infusion. Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston, Richard Wright


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Realism & Innovation (1945-present): Contemporary period, Themes related tochanges of the era: technology, anti-war protests, affluence, and changing values.Different types of writing: sci-fi, fantasy, etc.. Stephen King, Toni Morrison, J.D. Salinger

TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES FOR READING PASSAGES

1. Always read the questions first. This will help you to focus yourattention and direct you to the parts of the reading passage that aremost important for you to understand.

2. Make sure you understand exactly what each question is asking .STOP and take a moment to think about what you will need to lookfor in the reading passage. Sometimes it helps to put the question inyour own words or circle key words in the passage, such as not,least, cause, effect, first, last, etc.

3. If you dont know the correct answer, use the process of elimination

to narrow choices.

4. Never choose an answer that is not supported by something in theselection or your own background knowledge.

5. Skimming means to glance quickly at a reading passage to get asense of the topics and important ideas. It should never be used asubstitute for careful reading of the passage.

However, it can be an important strategy, which you can use throughout thetest. Heres an example: A test question asks about the setting of a story.Once you have read the passage all the way through, go back and skip

through the paragraphs that discuss other ideas or events. Skim theparagraphs until you find the ones that discuss the time and the place, whichtogether would make up the setting. Now, read this part of the passagecarefully.

6. Dont expect to always know the answers to most questions afteronly one reading.

Good test takers learn how to go back into the passage again and again tofind specific information. This is one of the most important strategies for areading test -knowing what information you need and rereading untilyou find it. (Use your skimming skills here)

7. If the question saysAccording to the passage or Presented in thepassage, make sure that the answer you choose is based oninformation you read in the passage.

This can also be a trick for students who think they can get by without doingthe necessary reading.


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8. Never choose an answer that contains any wrong information. If anypart of an answer choice is wrong, do not choose this answer.

9. Understand that part of an incorrect answer is often correct, butmay not be complete enough to be the best answer.

10. Be aware that the answer to a question is often stated in words thatare a little bit different from the exact words used in the readingpassage.(This is to test yourcomprehension, not just word recognition skills. Heres anexample: A passage about the Civil War discusses the casualties of war, butthe answer choice uses the word fatalities. By choosing the answer choicethat contains the word fatalities, a good test taker is also demonstratingunderstanding or reading comprehension.

11. For main idea questions, always reread the first and last sentences.Also, skim through the reading passage to see how many times eachof the answer choices is discussed.

Heres an example: You are trying to decide whether the main idea is aboutsoccer or football, so you skim through the passage and learn that soccer ismentioned four times. (Be sure to include the pronouns in your count.)However, the writer only mentions football two times. You can be prettyconfident that the main idea is about soccer. (Underline the words footballand soccerin your test bookletas you skim. This way, you know you havemade the correct choice.)

12. Dont confuse a supporting detail with the main idea. Remember

that a supporting detail just explains or gives more informationabout the topic.

Think about the paragraphs you have written in class when your teachershave told you to be sure to write about 8 or 10 sentences that explain aboutyour topic sentence or main idea.

13. When you finish a reading passage, try to sum up everything inone sentence. This should be very close to the main idea.

14. For time and sequence questions, dont always expect to find all ofthe events given to you in correct order in the passage. These

directions are not in order: Pass up your homework after you sitdown. The correct order is -first, sit down, and second, pass upyour homework. Something like this can fool you on a test.Remember to use your clue words for time and sequence: first, then, before,finally, last, etc.

15. For vocabulary questions, when you have to choose the correctmeaning of a word, it is helpful to read the following: Thesentence that the word is in


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- The sentence right before- The sentence right after

This area of the passage surrounding the word is called the context.Context clues are the words, phrases, and sentences that surround theword you do not know.


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GHSGT TermsA to Z (okay, okay A-W)

Term Definition In ActionAesthetic The beauty of something

rather than its usefulness.Gosh, he looks great in a footballuniform. Yeah, but I understand hecant throw the ball more than 10feet.

Affixes Word parts that when addedto words change theirmeaning or part of speech

Un+believe+able=unbelievable

Allegory This is a story with two ormore levels of meaningaliteral level and a symboliclevelin which events,setting, and characters aresymbols for ideas or qualities.

The Ministers Black Veil byNathaniel Hawthorne

Alliteration The repetition of initialconsoant sounds at thebeginning of words.

The soft rain soothed my soul.

Allusion This is the reference to aperson, place, or event fromhistory, literature, or religionwith which a reader is likelyto be familiar

Almanac A reference text that hascollections of facts from yearto year

Poor Richards Almanack by BenFranklin

AmericanDream A common theme inAmerican Literature; thechance for the good life thatmotivates the hard work,perseverance, anddetermination of eachgeneration

AmericanIndividualism

A common theme inAmerican literature; manyman and women who cameto America were seeking anew life. Individual

achievement and ambitionhelped them survive.

Analogy This is a comparison basedon a similarity betweenthings that are otherwisedissimilar.

Left: right::up: down

Antagonist The character or force thatopposes the protagonist

Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader


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ArchetypalCharacter

This is a character in a workthat is very typical of acertain type of person.

The bad guy is in the black cowboyhat.

Archetype This is the original model fora person, place, thing, or ideaappearing later in history,

folklore, literature, or myth. Itis a symbol, setting,character, or theme that hasuniversal meaning.

Beauty, truth, goodness, and sinare all examples of this literaryterm.

Argument This involves one or morereasons presented by aspeaker or writer to lead theaudience or reader to alogical conclusion.

By authorityusing authorityfigures, experts, or famous peoplewho recommend something

By emotionusing appeals madeto feelings or reactions to love,hate, happiness, etc.

By logicusing reasoning andevidence to persuade the readingthat a certain opinion or positionmakes sense

Assonance Not really a full rhyme, butsimilar vowel sounds

week-seed

Autobiography Story of a persons life told bythat person

Autobiography of Ben Franklin

Ballad A narrative poem, often of folk origin, intended to besung

Bias This is a prejudice that isleaning toward a positive ornegative judgment onsomething; an opinion

For example, a student might havea bias (because he wishes toattend that college) toward thebest college football team.

Bandwagon A persuasive technique thattries to make the consumerwant to be part of a group

Everyone is using ProActiv!

Bibliography A list of resources used bythe author found at the endof a report that cites or givescredit to any book youconsulted.

A works cited page at the end ofa research paper.

Biography Story of a persons life told byanother person.Blank verse Unrhymed iambic pentameter Birches by Robert Frost

WHEN I see birches bend to leftand right

Across the line of straighterdarker trees

Card stacking A persuasive techniquewhere only good information

It really, really works to cleanteeth whiter (we forgot to tell you,


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is presented. it causes cavities, toooops!)Characters The people or individuals

involved in the story ordrama

Abigail, Rev. Hale, Tituba, and JohnProctor from The Crucible

Characterization

The ways that an authorshows readers what a

character in a literaryselection is like.

Revealed by: the characters ownwords, what others say or think

about the character, what thecharacter does, or through directdescription

Climax The high point of the conflictwhen the most action orexcitement takes place

Cognate Words of different languagesthat share the same rootword

Night, nuit, nacht, nicht, nott,noche, notte, and nox

ColonialPeriod:

An American literary period(1620-1750) when the focuswas on historical events, dailylife, moral attitudes(Puritanism), and politicalunrest.

Authors: William BradfordOfPlymouth Plantation

Jonathan EdwardsSinners in theHands of an Angry GodAnne BradstreetTo My Dear andLoving HusbandBen FranklinAutobiography, PoorRichards Almanac

Comedy Lighthearted play intended toamuse the audience

Much Ado About Nothing

Conflict A struggle that is part of theplot and can trigger action in

the plot. Common literaryconflicts occur with nature,self, society, or machine.

Man vs. Food tv show

Consonance A type of slant rhyme, wordshave the same consonantsounds at the beginning orend but vowel sounds aredifferent

Zealots by the Fugees: "Raprejects my tape deck, ejectsprojectile/WhetherJew or gentileI rank top percentile."

Context clues Words or phrases that helpreaders to define unknownwords, usually found beforeor after the unknown word.

CulturalDiversity

A common literary theme inAmerican literature involvingmany different culturescoming to American andmixing with both successesand failures. This blending ofvarious people has allowed adiversity of ideas andpractices, enabling other


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groups to succeed.Denouement The action that follows the

climax as the plot windsdown.

Diary Autobiographical record. Itcan offer opinions, and

thoughts of people fromanother time.

Diary of Anne Frank

Drama A type of literature that existsboth as a written text and asa staged event with actorsinterpreting the words.

Romeo and JulietThe Crucible

Dramaticconventions

Generally agreed upon termsused by playwrights, actors,and directors.

Exit: stage left

Dynamiccharacter

A type of character whochanges

Editorial Statements of fact or opinionfound in a newspaper ormagazine.

Effectiveness A judgment made by a readerabout evidence that a film,advertisement, or web pagemade the point it was tryingto establish.

Electronicmedia

The Internet, databases,DVDs, or CDs which provideresearch informationelectronically

Galileo or SIRS Researcher in ourmedia center

End rhyme Most common form of rhyming where words at theends of lines rhyme

The cat sat/on the mat

Evidence Facts that support main andsubordinate ideas.

Anecdotes, facts, or statistics.

Exposition Information imparted bycharacters that helps toexplain the situation at thebeginning of a play or story.

Expository text A mode of writing whosepurpose is to conveyinformation or to explain and

establish the validity of anidea in a logical, clear, andconcrete manner.

textbooks, encyclopedias, scientificbooks/journals, atlases, directions,guides, biographies, newspapers

Falling action Part of the story between itsclimax and resolution

Figurativelanguage

Colorful language that addsmeaning.

Metaphor, simile, personification,and hyperbole are examples.

First person The narrator relates events I, me and we are common


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point of view from a personal perspectiveusing his or her own words.

clues to this POV.

Fixed form Traditional verse with arhyme scheme.

Sonnets

Flashbackstructure

A structure where an authorinterrupts a scene to go back

and tell about events thatoccurred earlier.

William Faulkners The Sound andthe Fury mixes scenes from seven

major time periods.

Formallanguage

Used by writers of scholarlybooks. It usually has longersentences and a greatervariety of words thaneveryday speech.

Teachers want you to use formal

language when writing essays.

Framenarrative

A structure where a story istold within a story. There areactually two ongoing stories:one about the narrator andanother told by the narrator.

Free form A type of poetry that has nospecific rules of rhyme,meter, or length

Walt Whitman wrote in free verse.

Genre The category or type of literature.

Poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama,horror, mystery/suspense,romance, science fiction

HarlemRenaissance

An American literary periodthat occurred within theModern period and featuredmany African-Americanwriters.

W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes,Countee Cullen, Zora NealeHurston, and Richard Wright

Historicalcontext The setting andcircumstances in which aliterary work is written or anevent occurs.

The Crucibleabout the SalemWitch Trials, BUT a historicalmatch for McCarthy Era (anotherwitch hunt)

Hyperbole An extreme exaggerationused in a literary work.

The rain seemed to last for onehundred years.

Idiom A phrase in common use thatcan not be understood byliteral or ordinary meanings.

It is raining cats and dogsoutside. Meaning: it is raininghard NOT that youre going to gooutside and step in a poodle ;)

Imagery The use of language thatappeals to the five sense

touch, taste, smell, hearing,and sight.

The ooze of the sand between mytoes, the smell of the salt air, and

the cool breeze from the oceanmade my walk on the beach agreat escape from the chaos athome.

Informallanguage

Everyday speech. It usuallyconsists of fairly shortsentences and simplevocabulary.

Every single text youve sent sinceyouve been in the studysession! :D

Internal rhyme Rhyming words are found Once upon a midnight dreary,


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within a line of poetry. while I pondered, weak andweary,Over many a quaint and curiousvolume of forgotten lore,

While I nodded, nearlynapping, suddenly there came a

tapping,As of some one gently rapping,rapping at my chamber door."'Tis some visitor," I muttered,"tapping at my chamber doorEdgar Allan Poe

Irony A situation or a statementthat is opposite of what isexpected, such as saying onething and doing another.

Kudzu - a vine imported to theUnited States in the 1930s andplanted all over the South at thedirection of the US Government inorder to prevent soil erosion.Instead of preventing erosion, itclimbs and chokes native trees andplants, thus causing even moreerosion.

Literallanguage

Language that states themeaning of a word as it iscommonly defined

Literaryperiods

Time frame or collection ofauthors grouped by style ortheme, defined by sharedcharacteristics. This includes:style of writing, the genrechosen, and subject matter.

Romanticism and Realism areliterary periods.

Lyric poetry Romantic or descriptivepoems that contain anexpression of the poetsfeelings and thoughts.

Elegies, odes, and sonnets areoften lyric poems.

Metaphor A comparison of two thingsdirectly without using thewords like or as. The writerstates that one thing isanother even if they aredifferent.

His words are a warm blanket overmy heart.

Modern drama

A style of writing that

explores many of the samesubjects and themes thatmodern literature hastreated. Since 1900 or so,slice-of-life dramas allow theaudience to viewcontemporary existencethrough themes of alienationand a sense of being

Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams


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disconnected.Modern period An American literary period

(1900-1950) featuring WorldWars, a Great Depression,and increased commercialismwhich caused writers to

explore themes of alienationand change. Fears anddisillusionment were also partof this period.

Ernest Hemingway, F. ScottFitzgerald, and T.S. Eliot areauthors.

Mood The affect that the story hasupon the reader

Narrativepoem

A poetic structure that tells astory and describes thepurpose behind the writing.

Narrator A speaker, author, or actorwho is telling a story aboutother people

NativeAmericanPeriod

An American literary period(pre-1620-1840). The earliestliterature of the aboriginalpopulation was an oraltradition. Much of thattradition was lost with thecoming of the Europeans. Thefocus was on the natural andsacred worlds, as well as theimportance of land and place.

Earth on Turtles Back andWhen Grizzlies Walked Uprightare examples from the NativeAmerican period

Naturalism An American literary period

(1880-1940) which was anextension of Realism. Writerssought to explore how humannature controlled otherpeoples lives. Nature wasoften cruel as humansthought to survive.

Jack Londons Call of the Wild and

White Fang are examples ofNaturalism.

Paradox A statement that at firstseems self-contradictory butwhich upon reflection makessense.

less is more

Parallel

structure

In a sentence or paragraph,

items in a series in a similarform: I came, I saw, Iconquered.

Skating, running, and skiing are

sports she enjoys. (all gerunds)

Personification A form of figurative languagethat gives humancharacteristics to somethingthat is not human.

The wind whispered through thetrees.

Plot The sequence of events infiction.


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Point of view(POV)

The perspective of a piece ofwriting; how the authorpresents the world

First person; second person; thirdperson limited; third personomniscient

Political drama A play with a political aspectto it. The playwright usesdrama to advocate a certain

political point of view. Usuallythese are about currenttopics or political events.

The Crucible

PostmodernPeriod/ContemporaryPeriod

An American literary period(1950-present) featuringirony, absurdity, and cynicalattitudes.

Kurt Vonneguts Fahrenheit 451

Primary source A record of events bysomeone who participated inor witnessed the eventsdirectly. These sources arecalled primary because theywould be the first recorded,and the most related to atopic or incident in time.

Memoirs, journals, diaries, publicrecords and documents,newspaper stories, personalinterviews

Protagonist The main character of a story Abigail Williams in The Crucible;Tom Walker in The Devil and TomWalker

Pun A term for a play on wordsthat have a similar meaning.

Seafood diet: I see food and I eatit.

An Asian restaurant named Wokand Roll

Realism An American literary period(1850-1900) when rural lifegave way to industrializationand larger cites. Authorsfocused on the often cruelrealities of this new world.Local color was apart as thewriting portrayed differentregions (South and West)accurately.

Mark Twains Huck Finn

Refrain A word, phrase, or series of lines that is repeated, adding

rhythm and emphasis to asong or poem. A refrain tendsto make a poem easier tomemorize, recite, and recall.

Resolution The completion of the plot.RevolutionaryPeriod andNationalism

An American literary period(1750-1815) when politicalwriting dominated during andafter the American

Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin,and Thomas Paine are all writersfrom this time period.


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Revolution. Nationalism andpatriotism were explored, aswell as what it means to beAmerican.

Rhetoricalquestions

Questions with obviousanswers, used as a

persuasive technique.

Your mother says, do you thinkIm just talking to hear myself

talk?. Obviously you think sheis...youve been ignoring her allday. Of course, it is best that youdont confirm her suspicions.

Rising action Part of a literary work thatintroduces characters and thefirst events in the plot thatlead into the major conflicts.

Romanticismand

Transcendentalism

An American literary period(1800-1855) whenphilosophical attitudes ofwriters of this period wereformed in reaction to theearlier periods in whichreason and rational thoughtdominated.

Individualism, nature, imagination,creativity, and emotions arefeatures of this period.

Herman Melvilles Moby Dick

Edgar Allan Poeeverything

Secondarysource

A record of events bysomeone w ho did notparticipate directly in thesubject matter. Thesesources are usually collectedafter an event has occurred.Many books or magazinearticles appear to be takenfrom eyewitnesses, but oftenthey rely on secondarysources, particularly if anevent occurred long ago.

Textbooks, encyclopedias, andother nonfiction books are oftensecondary sources.

Second personpoint of view

A viewpoint where the authoror the narrator addresses thereader directly.

you or your is a clue to thisPOV

Setting Where and when the actionsin a story or drama takeplace.

The CrucibleSalem, MA in 1692

Simile A direct comparison between

two things. The writers usesthe words like or as to makea connection between themeanings.

The balloon rose like a moon.

Slant rhyme The final words of lines in apoem have sounds that aresimilar but the vowel soundsare different.

Againgrain or stain

Sonnet A lyric poem with 14 rhymed Shakespeares 154 sonnets


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lines.Stereotyping A persuasive technique that

simplifies a complex group.All tall people are good basketballplayers.

Stream ofconsciousness

A style of writing introducedin the Modern period, thatfeatures unconnected

thoughts of a character.Style The characteristics of a given

writers body of work. Overtime and various works,authors develop a signatureway of looking at the world.

Suffix An affix added to the end of aword that may change a wordfrom a verb to a noun, a nounto an adjective or anadjective to an adverb

Slow +ly = slowly

Symbolism A style of writing that uses aperson, place, or object in away that adds significancebeyond its surface meaning.A thing stands for somethingelse.

Theme Universal truths about life anauthor brings out in his or herwork. It usually expresses auniversal view on life andsociety.

The importance of forgiveness

Thesis A controlling idea for a

paragraph or set ofparagraphs or a whole workthat is supported by providingevidence from a variety ofsources.

Third personlimited POV

A style of writing in which thenarrator tells the story fromthe perspective of onecharacter, knowing only thatcharacters thoughts andfeelings.

they ; him; her

Third person

omniscientPOV

The narrator is outside the

action and refers tocharacters as he, she, orthem. The narrator is god-like and knows all thecharacters thoughts andfeelings as well asinformation about all events.

Tolerance A common literary theme inAmerican Literature. Unlike

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novelthat explores this theme.


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older European and Asiansocieties where class rulesand religion did not allow anydifferences, American societyembraced them. Freedom ofreligion and the rights of each

human are cornerstones ofthe American outlook on theworld.

Tone The emotions or moodconveyed by the language anauthor uses. The readersemotion is controlled by theauthors use of language.

Critical, angry, condescending,cynical, cheerful, joyful, malicious,playful, pathetic, reverent, serious

Tragedy A serious play that ends indisaster and sorrow.

Romeo and Juliet

Understatement

A rhetorical technique thatminimizes or lessens theimportance of what wasmeant for effect.

In the middle of the dessert heat, acharacter says, My, its warmtoday. This is the opposite ofhyperbole.

Universal lifeexperiences

The common trials and joysthat most humans share,which make up the plot offictional stories.

Death. Weddings. Birth. Love.

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