Idioms

 Which of the following quotes taken from a movie is an example of an idiom?

a. from: The Avengers
Loki: I am a god, dull creature, and I will NOT be bullied by a ...

b. from: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Kirk: If we play our cards right, we may be able to find out when those whales are being released.

Spock: How will playing cards help?

c. from: Clash of the Titans

Perseus: If I do this, I do it as a man.
Draco: But you are NOT just a man.

d. from: Taken

Bryan: I have a daughter who wants to be a singer. I was wondering if you have any tips for her.
Sheerah: Yeah, I do. Tell her pick another career.

Scroll down for the answer.

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To get this question right, you need to know the definition of idiom:

The term refers to a set expression or a phrase comprising two or more words. An interesting fact regarding the device is that the expression is not interpreted literally. The phrase is understood as to mean something quite different from what individual words of the phrase would imply. Alternatively, it can be said that the phrase is interpreted in a figurative sense. Further, idioms vary in different cultures and countries.

from: http://literarydevices.net/

For all of these, the only one that has a set expression is when Kirk is talking to Spock and says, "play our cards right," so the correct answer is b. 

Verily, A New Hope

 Read the following passage from William Shakespeare's Star Wars:

C3P0:
Now is the summer of our happiness
Made winter by this sudden, fierce attack!
Our ship is under siege, I know not how.

In the above passage, the word 'winter' is used to mean:
a. a season of cold weather
b. an ending
c. a new hope
d. an attack from an opposing force

Scroll down for the answer.

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a. is incorrect.  If the state test asks you about something that seems really easy, look again.  Chances are that is a false answer.

b. is correct.  Winter ends summer, just like this attack ends their happiness.  Congratulations!  You just figured out a metaphor.  These can be tricky sometimes.

c. is incorrect.  

d. is incorrect.  There is an attack being referenced, but it is not what winter is meaning.

Deer

 Read the following poem, "Deer," by Bill Griffin.

Omigosh oh snap

oh horrors I heard it

so close too close

and way too big

might be one of those

Little Wolves I'll bet

there are two 

no ten a whole pack

oh God I just know

they bite

I

must

do

as

Ma

ma

said

stand

per

fect

ly

still

un

til

he

turns

a

way

then

run

like

Oh heck, it's only

you, and you've been

looking at me

all day long

and haven't even

seen me

once.

Why does the author have the middle of the poem consist of all lines being only one syllable long?

a. to show how still the deer is being

b. to give the poem a dumb bell shape

c. to show how fast the deer is moving

d. to symbolize the heart beats of the scared deer

Scroll down for the answer.

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This poem is STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS - that is, it is written in the thought process of the narrator.  This is not a common method of writing (two books that come to mind are As I Lay Dying  and The Death of Jayson Porter.  Chances are very high that you will NOT see this term on the NCFinal (or MSL or Common Exam or Smarter Balance or whatever it is called when you see this post); however, there is a chance that it will pop up, and if it does, then you know what it means!

The deer is frightened and, as all deer do when frightened, he is standing perfectly still, shown by the slow, one syllable lines.  The correct answer is A.

This is just one of several animal related poems in Bill Griffin's book, Snake Den Ridge: A Bestiary.  He is a North Carolina poet and you should check out his other works at his blog: http://griffinpoetry.com/

Take a shot at this one

 Look at the following image:

This is an example of which literary term?

a. pun
b. situational irony
c. metaphor
d. alliteration







Scroll down for the answer.







________________
The correct answer is:
   a. pun



See teachers, this is why you should consider creating some questions yourself or having your students do it as a project and send them to me.  Otherwise, you're in for a lot of these corny ones.  Fair warning.

Houston, We Have a Problem

 Read the following very short story:

“Houston, We Have a Problem” by J. Matthew Zoss

I’m sorry, but there’s not enough air in here for everyone. I’ll tell them you were a hero.

From the story, we can assume:

a. their spacecraft must have been hit by a comet
b. they are locked in a bank vault and running out of air
c. one person is going to kill the other person
d. both characters are going to die in a sunken submarine







Scroll down for the answer.








_____________________
a. is incorrect.  From the title you can guess that it involves space travel, but nothing to suggest a comet strike.  This is the best wrong answer.
b. is incorrect.  From the story you can tell that they are running out of air, but nothing to suggest that it is in a bank vault.
c. is correct.  One will kill the other so that he can breath longer.
d. is incorrect.  Nothing to suggest either inference in this answer.  This is the worst answer choice.

Burn, Baby, Burn!

Read the following excerpt from Fahrenheit 451.  This is a book written in the 1950s that takes place in our future.

The little mosquito-delicate dancing hum in the air, the electrical murmur of a hidden wasp snug in its special pink warm nest. The music was almost loud enough so he could follow the tune.

Without turning on the light he imagined how this room would look. His wife stretched on the bed, uncovered and cold, like a body displayed on the lid of the tomb, her eyes fixed in the ceiling by invisible threads of steel, immovable. And in her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind. The room was indeed empty. Every night the waves came in and bore her off on their great tides of sound, floating her, wide-eyed, toward morning. There had been no night in the last two years that Mildred had not swum that sea, had not gladly gone down in it for the third time.

What is the purpose of the metaphor in this passage?

a. to explain how Mildred drowned
b. to show that Mildred cannot swim
c. to explain how Mildred listens to music
d. to show Mildred's unique fashion sense

Scroll down for the answer.








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This is a typical reading comprehension three part question. Part one, do you know what a metaphor is?  Part two, can you find the metaphor?  Part three do you understand what the metaphor means?  

The ocean is a metaphor showing how distant Mildred is when she uses the "seashell" radio.  Basically Ray Bradbury is envisioning ear buds way back in the 1950s.  Know that you know that, the other metaphor, the mosquito, makes more sense as well and adds to the understanding.  
C. is the correct answer.

 

I Still Want the Running Man Home Edition Board Game

 Read this passage from The Running Man by Richard Bachman:

    "Oh dear God," Amelia Williams moaned.

    Richards looked down at himself casually.  His entire right side, from ribcage to calf, was bright and sparkling red.

    "Who would have thought the old man had so much blood in him?" Richards said.

What literary term is the last line said by Richards?

a. allusion

b. cliche

c. personification

d. metaphor

In reality, Richard Bachman turned out to be a pen name for Stephen King.

Scroll down for the answer.

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a. is the correct answer.  It is difficult to pick out allusions (this one came from Macbeth) if you have not read the text that is alluded to, so you probably would have to have ruled out the other answers to figure this one out.

b. a cliche is a worn out phrase.  Since you are probably not familiar with this line, you can rule out cliche.

c. and d. are literary terms you are probably familiar with.  There is no nonhuman thing getting human characteristics and there is no comparison, so they are clearly not the right answer.  

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