Card 0 of 20
Cunning beyond fancy's dream is the fertile skill which brings him, now to evil, now to good. When he honours the laws of the land, and that justice which he hath sworn by the gods to uphold, proudly stands his city: no city hath he who, for his rashness, dwells with sin. Never may he share my hearth, never think my thoughts, who doth these things
(Fifth century BCE)
This excerpt emphasizes the importance of __________.
The exerpt implies that when "laws are broken," the city will fall apart.
(Adapted from the R. C. Jebb translation of Antigone by Sophocles 401-413, Fifth century BCE)
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Think, then, on these things, my son. All men are liable to err; but when an error hath been made, that man is no longer witless or unblest who heals the ill into which he hath fallen, and remains not stubborn.
(Fifth century BCE)
The passage professes the idea that __________.
The excerpt says "that man is no longer witless or unblest who heals the ill into which he hath fallen, and remains not stubborn." This means a man is no longer "witless," or ignorant, once he has learned from his mistakes and mended his wrongdoing.
(Adapted from the R. C. Jebb translation of Antigone by Sophocles 1172-1176, Fifth century BCE)
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Adapted from Richard III by William Shakespeare, I.i.1-42
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barded steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the king
In deadly hate the one against the other:
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up,
About a prophecy, which says that 'G'
Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.
Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here
Clarence comes.
Which of the following best captures the theme of the underlined lines, lines 1-13?
"War" and "entertainment" are equally relevant to the underlined selection, as a time of war is depicted as haven given way to a time of peaceful pastimes. "Seasons" is only relevant as part of the metaphor presented in the first four lines, so it cannot be the theme of the entire selection, and while "exclusion" is certainly a theme of the passage taken as a whole, the narrator has not related how the shift from wartime to peacetime has personally affected himself. This leaves us with the correct answer, "change." An overarching theme of the first thirteen lines of the passage is the change from a society at war to a society at peace.
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A bell rings in the hall; shortly afterwards the door is heard to open.
Enter NORA, humming a tune and in high spirits. She is in out-door dress and carries a number of parcels; these she lays on the table to the right. She leaves the outer door open after her, and through it is seen a PORTER who is carrying a Christmas Tree and a basket, which he gives to the MAID who has opened the door.)
Nora: Hide the Christmas Tree carefully, Helen. Be sure the children do not see it till this evening, when it is dressed. (To the PORTER, taking out her purse.) How much?
Porter: Sixpence.
Nora: There is a shilling. No, keep the change. (The PORTER thanks her, and goes out. NORA shuts the door. She is laughing to herself, as she takes off her hat and coat. She takes a packet of macaroons from her pocket and eats one or two; then goes cautiously to her husband's door and listens.) Yes, he is in. (Still humming, she goes to the table on the right.)
Helmer: (calls out from his room). Is that my little lark twittering out there?
Nora (busy opening some of the parcels): Yes, it is!
Helmer: Is it my little squirrel bustling about?
Nora: Yes!
Helmer: When did my squirrel come home?
Nora: Just now. (Puts the bag of macaroons into her pocket and wipes her mouth.) Come in here, Torvald, and see what I have bought.
Helmer: Don't disturb me. (A little later, he opens the door and looks into the room, pen in hand.) Bought, did you say? All these things? Has my little spendthrift been wasting money again?
Nora: Yes, but, Torvald, this year we really can let ourselves go a little. This is the first Christmas that we have not needed to economize.
Helmer: Still, you know, we can't spend money recklessly.
Nora: Yes, Torvald, we may be a wee bit more reckless now, mayn't we? Just a tiny wee bit! You are going to have a big salary and earn lots and lots of money.
Helmer: Yes, after the New Year; but then it will be a whole quarter before the salary is due.
Nora: Pooh! we can borrow till then.
(1879)
Based on the excerpt, which of the following is most likely to be a major theme of the play?
Based on the provided excerpt, the most likely major theme (of the ones provided) is the limited opportunities afforded to women. It is clear throughout the excerpt that Nora has no career or money of her own. She has spent her day shopping and then is scolded by her husband, who consistently refers to her using the possessive "my." The publication date also provides a clue to the theme, as women were afforded many fewer opportunities in 1879 compared to today. The other theme choices are all connected to the the content of the excerpt, but there is not enough evidence to support choosing them. For example, reference is made to the existence of class divisions but we have no reason to believe the playwright is presenting these divisions as evil. Likewise, reference is made to financial success and consumerism but the excerpt does not take a clear moral position on either of these things.
Passage adapted from Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House (1879)
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A Late Walk
1 When I go up through the mowing field,
2 The headless aftermath,
3 Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew,
4 Half closes the garden path.
5 And when I come to the garden ground,
6 The whir of sober birds
7 Up from the tangle of withered weeds
8 Is sadder than any words
9 A tree beside the wall stands bare,
10 But a leaf that lingered brown,
11 Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought,
12 Comes softly rattling down.
13 I end not far from my going forth
14 By picking the faded blue
15 Of the last remaining aster flower
16 To carry again to you.
One theme of the poem is .
One theme of the poem is the passing of time is something sorrwoful, as the poem treats the arrival of winter with weighty vocabulary ("withered weeds"), despondent imagery (such as a falling leaf), and straight-forwardly states that the business of "sober birds" is "sadder than any words."
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Batter my heart (Holy Sonnet 14)
1 Batter my heart, three-person'd God; for you
2 As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
3 That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
4 Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
5 I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
6 Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
7 Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
8 But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
9 Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
10 But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
11 Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
12 Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
13 Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
14 Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
At its most basic level, the theme of this poem is .
At its most basic level, the theme of this sonnet is religion (that is, the poet's wish for God's more forceful intervention in his life).
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1 How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
2 I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
3 My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
4 For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
5 I love thee to the level of everyday's
6 Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
7 I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
8 I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
9 I love thee with the passion put to use
10 In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
11 I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
12 With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,
13 Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
14 I shall but love thee better after death.
What is the principal theme of this poem?
The principal theme of this poem is love, as the word "love" is mentioned 9 times.
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1 If but some vengeful god would call to me
2 From up the sky, and laugh: "Thou suffering thing,
3 Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,
4 That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!"
5 Then would I bear it, clench myself, and die,
6 Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;
7 Half-eased in that a Powerfuller than I
8 Had willed and meted me the tears I shed.
9 But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain,
10 And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?
11 —Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,
12 And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan. . . .
13 These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown
14 Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.
(1898)
Who or what is causing the speaker pain and suffering?
Casualty and Time are causing the speaker pain and suffering. They are mentioned in lines 11 and 12. In line 13, the speaker refers to them as doomsters who strew blessings as pain: "These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown / Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain." It is not a god or a "Powerfuller than I" because the first 8 lines are devoted to explaining that it would be easier to accept pain if he knew a god, even a mean one, was behind his pain, but then right after considering this idea, the speaker says, "But not so" (line 9).
(Passage adapted from "Hap" by Thomas Hardy)
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Adapted from “Solitary Death, make me thine own” in Underneath the Bough: A Book of Verses by Michael Field (pseudonym of Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper) (1893)
Solitary Death, make me thine own,
And let us wander the bare fields together;
Yea, thou and I alone
Roving in unembittered unison forever.
I will not harry thy treasure-graves,
I do not ask thy still hands a lover;
My heart within me craves
To travel till we twain Time’s wilderness discover.
To sojourn with thee my soul was bred,
And I, the courtly sights of life refusing,
To the wide shadows fled,
And mused upon thee often as I fell a-musing.
Escaped from chaos, thy mother Night,
In her maiden breast a burthen that awed her,
By cavern waters white
Drew thee her first-born, her unfathered off-spring toward her.
On dewey plats, near twilight dingle,
She oft, to still thee from men’s sobs and curses
In thine ears a-tingle,
Pours her cool charms, her weird, reviving chaunt rehearses.
Though mortals menace thee or elude,
And from thy confines break in swift transgression.
Thou for thyself art sued
Of me, I claim thy cloudy purlieus my possession.
To a long freshwater, where the sea
Stirs the silver flux of the reeds and willows,
Come thou, and beckon me
To lie in the lull of the sand-sequestered billows:
Then take the life I have called my own
And to the liquid universe deliver;
Loosening my spirit’s zone,
Wrap round me as thy limbs the wind, the light, the river.
Which of the following is NOT a subject treated in the poem?
The only subject listed that is not treated in the poem is the unjustness of early death. While death is covered extensively, the idea of “fairness” or justice with relation to death is directly at odds with the poem's treatment of death not as an exchange or an intrusion, but a natural and philosophically fruitful part of life.
Fear of death (in others) is alluded to by “men’s sobs and curses.” The nature of loyal companionship is alluded to throughout, but especially in the second stanza. The metaphysical origin of death is said to be “mother night” (who herself “escaped from chaos”), and the poem itself functions as a philosophical reflection, in addition to referencing the speaker taking this action (“And I, the courtly sights of life refusing, / To the wide shadows fled, / And mused upon thee often as I fell a-musing.”)
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Adapted from "Old Man Traveling" by William Wordsworth in Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798 ed.)
The little hedge-row birds,
That peck along the road, regard him not.
He travels on, and in his face, his step,
His gait, is one expression; every limb,
His look and bending figure, all bespeak
A man who does not move with pain, but moves
With thought—He is insensibly subdued
To settled quiet: he is one by whom
All effort seems forgotten, one to whom
Long patience has such mild composure given,
That patience now doth seem a thing, of which
He hath no need. He is by nature led
To peace so perfect, that the young behold
With envy, what the old man hardly feels.
—I asked him whither he was bound, and what
The object of his journey; he replied
"Sir! I am going many miles to take
"A last leave of my son, a mariner,
"Who from a sea-fight has been brought to Falmouth,
And there is dying in an hospital."
According to the poem, who covets the accomplishments of the man?
The speaker clearly states that “the young behold / With envy, what the old man hardly feels” in reference to the state of peace the man has reached. So, we know it is the young who are envious and covet the accomplishments of the old man in that they wish to attain such a mindset. We can reach this answer by eliminating "the birds," "the man's son," and "everyone," as the birds pay no attention to the man, the son is dying and not said to envy his father's accomplishments, and “everyone” is similarly not mentioned in the poem. We then can rule out the narrator as although he or she is probably envious, the narrator does not directly state that they covet what the old man has, making "the young" the best answer.
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Adapted from "Old Man Traveling" by William Wordsworth in Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798 ed.)
The little hedge-row birds,
That peck along the road, regard him not.
He travels on, and in his face, his step,
His gait, is one expression; every limb,
His look and bending figure, all bespeak
A man who does not move with pain, but moves
With thought—He is insensibly subdued
To settled quiet: he is one by whom
All effort seems forgotten, one to whom
Long patience has such mild composure given,
That patience now doth seem a thing, of which
He hath no need. He is by nature led
To peace so perfect, that the young behold
With envy, what the old man hardly feels.
—I asked him whither he was bound, and what
The object of his journey; he replied
"Sir! I am going many miles to take
"A last leave of my son, a mariner,
"Who from a sea-fight has been brought to Falmouth,
And there is dying in an hospital."
Which of the following sentences best captures the theme of the passage?
The poem deals with tranquility in nature regardless of decay; indeed, the full title of the poem is "Old Man Traveling; Animal Tranquility and Decay; A Sketch." The man is traveling through nature, which is tranquil despite the fact that around it people live their lives and die in violent circumstances like battles. We can therefore say that the them the poet wants to convey overall is tranquility regardless of external worries. There is some suggestion that the man has gained a sort of peace or enlightenment due to his years, but the poet does not suggest one can only achieve this state through age. We could argue that “we must find solace in walking when we are most sad,” but this doesn't exactly fit the message that is being conveyed as there is no imperative given to walk by the poet. The other possible answers are both similarly trite and fail to grasp the theme as they focus on small parts of the poem rather than its entirety.
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Passage adapted from Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Spring" (1921).
To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know. 5
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify? 10
Not only under the ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs. 15
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.
A prominent theme in the poem is that __________.
The central message of the poem is that the sense of new life that is associated with springtime is ultimately an illusion, and that death is certain. As the poem states, the coming of springtime "is not enough" to compensate for impending death.
The message of the poem is not that one should "seize the day" or that life is meaningful and precious, because life is ultimately considered to be nothing (see 13-15), regardless of how it is lived. It cannot be said that the rebirth of spring proves that life overcomes death, because the writer gives concrete evidence of the finality of death in lines 11-12. For the same reason, there is little support for the idea of immortality in the poem.
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Passage adapted from "To Some Ladies" (1817) by John Keats
What though while the wonders of nature exploring,
I cannot your light, mazy footsteps attend;
Nor listen to accents, that almost adoring,
Bless Cynthia's face, the enthusiast's friend:
(5) Yet over the steep, whence the mountain stream rushes,
With you, kindest friends, in idea I rove;
Mark the clear tumbling crystal, its passionate gushes,
Its spray that the wild flower kindly bedews.
Why linger you so, the wild labyrinth strolling?
(10) Why breathless, unable your bliss to declare?
Ah! you list to the nightingale's tender condoling,
Responsive to sylphs, in the moon beamy air.
'Tis morn, and the flowers with dew are yet drooping,
I see you are treading the verge of the sea:
(15) And now! ah, I see it—you just now are stooping
To pick up the keep-sake intended for me.
If a cherub, on pinions of silver descending,
Had brought me a gem from the fret-work of heaven;
And smiles, with his star-cheering voice sweetly blending,
(20) The blessings of Tighe had melodiously given;
It had not created a warmer emotion
Than the present, fair nymphs, I was blest with from you,
Than the shell, from the bright golden sands of the ocean
Which the emerald waves at your feet gladly threw.
(25) For, indeed, 'tis a sweet and peculiar pleasure,
(And blissful is he who such happiness finds,)
To possess but a span of the hour of leisure,
In elegant, pure, and aerial minds.
All of the following are themes evoked in the poem EXCEPT _____________.
Duplicity, while a more complex vocab word than the other answers, is not representative of the poem. It means to be false or "two-faced," a theme not explored in the poem. We can see overt reference to "the wonders of nature exploring" in the first stanza, and repeated invocations of nature imagery throughout the poem ("mountain stream rushes," "flowers with dew are yet drooping"), so nature as a theme is pretty clear. The diction throughout ("a warmer emotion" and the second person address form of the whole poem are ample evidence for "love" as a theme. The poem is image focused and obviously concerned with aesthetic and natural beauty.
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1 They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
2 Love and desire and hate:
3 I think they have no portion in us after
4 We pass the gate.
5 They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
6 Out of a misty dream
7 Our path emerges for a while, then closes
8 Within a dream.
(1896)
This poem is primarily a meditation on ____________________.
The main theme of this poem is the briefness of human life. Both stanzas open with "They are not long..." (lines 1, 5), stating that neither our human passions nor our days spent in this world are long. Likewise, both stanzas end with references to life ending.
Passage adapted from "They are not long" by Ernest Dowson (1896)
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In pious times, e’r Priest-craft did begin,
Before Polygamy was made a Sin;
When Man on many multipli’d his kind,
E’r one to one was cursedly confin’d,
When Nature prompted and no Law deni’d (5)
Promiscuous Use of Concubine and Bride;
Then Israel’s Monarch, after Heavens own heart,
His vigorous warmth did, variously, impart
To Wives and Slaves: And, wide as his Command,
Scatter’d his Maker’s Image through the Land. (10)
(1681)
What is the main social structure being commented upon in this passage?
Although slaves and monarchs are both mentioned in this passage, neither is the correct choice. The passage is mostly concerned with the king’s marriage to multiple wives, concubines, and slaves, so the social structure being critiqued is either polygamy or the lack thereof: monogamy.
Passage adapted from “Absalom and Achitophel,” by John Dryden (1681)
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In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it. (5)
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
“Because it is bitter,
“And because it is my heart.” (10)
(1895)
The content of this passage can be said to be all but which of the following?
Sordid, or filthy, does not apply to the passage’s contents. The creature in the desert eating its own heart is an alarming, fantastical, and somewhat surreal image (creatures can’t literally eat their own organs and survive). The creature also poses existential questions (what does it mean to eat one’s own heart?) and debatably acts as an unstable metaphor.
Passage adapted from Stephen Crane’s “In the Desert” (1895)
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So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, (5)
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
(1817)
This passage presents an extended meditation on what subject?
The poem not only mentions death specifically but also gives the reader advice about how to prepare to meet this death. The talk of travel and sleep is simply presenting metaphors for death. The passage is not at all concerned with love or liveliness (conviviality).
Passage adapted from William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis” (1817)
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To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell,
To slowly trace the forest's shady scene,
Where things that own not man's dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been;
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flock that never needs a fold;
Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean;
This is not solitude, 'tis but to hold
Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores unrolled.
But midst the crowd, the hurry, the shock of men,
To hear, to see, to feel and to possess,
And roam alone, the world's tired denizen,
With none who bless us, none whom we can bless;
Minions of splendour shrinking from distress!
None that, with kindred consciousness endued,
If we were not, would seem to smile the less
Of all the flattered, followed, sought and sued;
This is to be alone; this, this is solitude!
What sense of isolation does Byron not identify in this poem?
The first stanza emphasizes a feeling of physical separation from other people. In the second stanza, Bryon mentions feeling no sense of emotional, intellectual, or spiritual connection with those in the crowd. No mention is made of any type of family relationship.
Passage adapted from George Gordon (Lord Byron)'s "Solitude" (1813)
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Tyger! Tyger! burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
(1794)
Which of the following most accurately reflects the poem's central question?
The questions at the end of each stanza wonder about a Creator and his ability to form a tiger. The line in stanza 5 (Did he who make the Lamb make thee?) wonders at how God could create such opposite animals.
Passage adapted from William Blake's "The Tyger" (1794)
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I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.
And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love, all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.
My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.
(1633)
Throughout the poem, the speaker explores the relationship between ______________.
In the first stanza, Donne's speaker mediates on physical pleasure, recalling past lovers he "desired and got" as a mere "dream" of his current beloved. Now in the "good-morrow," it is not only that Donne and his lover are literally waking up, but that their "souls" are. Donne spends the remainder of the poem preoccupied with the physical and romantic coming together of lovers, working through how it is that they both are one but are also separate and matched.
While Donne does use global exploration as a metaphor in trying to work out this relationship, the poem itself is not about exploration.
Passage adapted from John Donne's "The Good Morrow" (1633).
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