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.








______________________________
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.

__________________________

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.  

~

Auntie Em!

Read the following passage from www.wral.com:

Lee County estimates tornado damage at $57 million

---

SANFORD, N.C. — Lee County officials say damage to homes and businesses from the tornado earlier this month total at least $57 million.
Emergency Management Director Shane Seagroves presented the damage totals to county commissioners Monday.
Commissioner Jim Womack says the damage could "easily" exceed $100 million, counting damaged and destroyed vehicles and property in homes and businesses.
Two people died in the storm in Lee County.
Officials say at least 457 structures were damaged, including 99 homes and 17 businesses that were destroyed.


The tone of this passage is:


a. informational
b. jaded
c. sensationalistic
d. biased


















Scroll down for the answer.












_______________________
a. is correct.  The passage only seeks to inform the readers about the tornado damage.
b. is incorrect.  Jaded means that you are no longer moved by things that once got a reaction from you.
c. is incorrect.  WRAL is not trying to make the news story seem bigger than it is.
d. is incorrect.  There seems to be no slant in the story to make you take one side over another.




~

Mr. Blue Sky

Read the song lyrics below for "Mr. Blue Sky" by The Electric Light Orchestra about a nice sunny day after a long rainy and cloudy period:

Runnin' down the avenue
See how the sun shines brightly in the city
On the streets where once was pity
Mr. Blue Sky is living here today, hey hey

 

Mr. Blue Sky please tell us why

You had to hide away for so long (so long)

Where did we go wrong?

Mr. Blue Sky please tell us why

You had to hide away for so long (so long)

Where did we go wrong?

What literary term is being used in this song? 

a. apostrophe

b. metaphor

c. simile

d. dramatic irony

e. 3rd person omniscient narrator 

 

 

By the way, you would probably recognize this song from the opening of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 with Baby Groot:

 

Scroll down for the answer:

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The way to figure this answer out is to knock out all answers you know are NOT the right one.  Apostrophe is probably a term you are not as familiar with, so we can put that as a maybe.  The others, however, you are familiar with.  We can rule out metaphor because there is no comparison.  Likewise with simile - plus there is no "like" or "as".  As far as dramatic irony goes, there is nothing that we know that the characters in this song do not, so we can rule that out.  That leaves us with 3rd Person Omniscient.  Even if you are unclear on which person point of view this is told in, there is not knowledge of Mr. Blue Sky's thoughts, so we are not omniscient in this clip, so we can rule out that answer.  

That brings us back to apostrophe.  It is the only answer that isn't eliminated, so we can go with that one.  Only choose answer choices you are not familiar with if you can rule out the other answers.

Apostrophe - talking to something or some concept that cannot talk back to you.