Review Packet Week #15

Review Packet Week #8 Name: ______

Part I: Regents Review

Identify, and fully explain, one specific external conflict (person vs. person, person vs. society, person vs. nature) George Small faces in the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

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Explain how this external conflict is resolved (the resolution).

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What theme is expressed as a result of the conflict and resolution?Explain

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Part II:DIRECTIONS Read the following excerpt. Then answer the questions that follow.

from Hunger of Memory
by Richard Rodriguez

In fourth grade I embarked upon a grandiose reading program. “Give me the names of important books,” I would say to startled teachers. They soon found out that I had in mind “adult books.” I ignored their suggestions of anything I suspected was written for children. (Not until I was in college, as a result, did I read Huckleberry Finn or Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.) Instead, I read The Scarlet Letter and Franklin’s Autobiography. And whatever I read I read for extra credit. Each time I finished a book, I reported the achievement to a teacher and basked in the praise my effort earned. Despite my best efforts, however, there seemed to be more and more books I needed to read. At the library I would literally tremble as I came upon whole shelves of books I hadn’t read. So I read and I read and I read: Great Expectations; all the short stories of Kipling; The Babe Ruth Story; the entire first volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica (A–ANSTEY); the Iliad;Moby Dick;Gone with the Wind;The Good Earth;Ramona;Forever Amber;The Lives of the Saints;Crime and Punishment;The Pearl. . . . Librarians who initially frowned when I checked out the maximum ten books at a time started saving books they thought I might like. Teachers would say to the rest of the class, “I only wish the rest of you took reading as seriously as Richard obviously does.”

But at home I would hear my mother wondering, “What do you see in your books?” (Was reading a hobby like her knitting? Was so much reading even healthy for a boy? Was it a sign of “brains”? Or was it just a convenient excuse for not helping around the house on Saturday mornings?) Always, “What do you see . . . ?”

. . . I entered high school having read hundreds of books. My habit of reading made me a confident speaker and writer of English. Reading also enabled me to sense something of the shape, the major concerns, of Western thought. (I was able to say something about Dante and Descartes and Engels and James Baldwin1 in my high school term papers.) In these various ways, books brought me academic success as I hoped that they would. But I was not a good reader. Merely bookish, I lacked a point of view when I read. Rather, I read in order to acquire a point of view. I vacuumed books for epigrams, scraps of information, ideas, themes—anything to fill the hollow within me and make me feel educated. When one of my teachers suggested to his drowsy tenth-grade English class that a person could not have a “complicated idea” until he had read at least two thousand books, I heard the remark without detecting either its irony or its very complicated truth. I merely determined to compile a list of all the books I had ever read. Harsh with myself, I included only once a title I might have read several times. (How, after all, could one read a book more than once?) And I included only those books over a hundred pages in length. (Could anything shorter be a book?)

There was yet another high school list I compiled. One day I came across a newspaper article about the retirement of an English professor at a nearby state college. The article was accompanied by a list of the “hundred most important books of Western Civilization.” “More than anything else in my life,” the professor told the reporter with finality, “these books have made me all that I am.” That was the kind of remark I couldn’t ignore. I clipped out the list and kept it for the several months it took me to read all the titles. Most books, of course, I barely understood. While reading Plato’s Republic, for instance, I needed to keep looking at the book jacket comments to remind myself what the text was about. Nevertheless, with the special patience and superstition of a scholarship boy, I looked at every word of the text. And by the time I reached the last word, relieved, I convinced myself that I had read The Republic. In a ceremony of great pride, I solemnly crossed Plato off my list.

1. / Dante . . . Baldwin: Dante Alighieri, Italian poet (1265–1321), author of The Divine Comedy; René Descartes, French philosopher and mathematician (1596–1650); Friedrich Engels, German writer and socialist leader (1820–1895); James Baldwin, American writer (1924–1987), author of fiction, essays, and plays.

____1.Based on this excerpt, you can conclude that Hunger of Memory is probably —

a. / an editorial comment / c. / a personal journal
b. / an autobiographical essay / d. / a persuasive essay

____2.Which phrase BEST describes the tone of this passage?

a. / reflective / c. / whimsical
b. / satirical / d. / instructive

____3.The passage is organized MAINLY by —

a. / order of importance
b. / comparison and contrast
c. / chronological order
d. / citation of problems and their solutions

____4.Why did the author avoid reading children’s books in elementary school?

a. / He wanted to impress his peers.
b. / Teachers discouraged him from reading them.
c. / He had read all the important children’s books.
d. / He thought they were not sophisticated enough for him.

____5.The author’s selection of books during his elementary-school years can BEST be described as—

a. / discriminating / c. / varied
b. / random / d. / simplistic

____6.The effect of his early reading on the author’s high school experience —

a. / brought him academic success / c. / made him socially successful
b. / brought him fame and recognition / d. / caused him to avoid athletics

____7.What does the author mean when he says, “But I was not a good reader”?

a. / He could not pronounce hard words.
b. / He did not fully understand what he read.
c. / He did not know the history of most of the books.
d. / He could not remember things he had read.

____8.With which of the following statements would the author have agreed in his early years?

a. / One never finds satisfying answers in books.
b. / Reading creates more problems than it solves.
c. / It is pointless to read something that you don’t understand.
d. / An educated person is someone who has read a lot of books.

____9.Rodriguez describes his personal thirst for knowledge as —

a. / the special patience / c. / a complicated idea
b. / merely bookish / d. / the hollow within him

____10.What important lesson did the author learn about himself?

a. / He really did not like to read.
b. / He had been reading the wrong books.
c. / He had been reading for the wrong reasons.
d. / He had been reading too quickly.
____12.

Part III: Nonfiction

Teenagers Speak Up on Salinger
By THE EDITORSAmy Sancetta/Associated Press
Last week, Room for Debate published a discussion on whether J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye resonates with teenagers today. Many young readers sent in their thoughts. Here is an excerpt from their comments.
Stereotypes and Icons
I am sixteen years old and a junior in high school.
Just as it is a universally acknowledged truth that teenagers are obsessed with technology and instant communication, it is an equally unacknowledged truth that adults look upon this instant communication with disdain and stereotype teenagers as dramatic, self-obsessed, and careless. I can assure you that neither of these stereotypes are true. Yes, our lives are significantly affected by the newest technology, but are we any more obsessed than any workaholic-adult you see in a $900 suit and no idea when his children’s birthdays are?
I mention the common (and equally inaccurate) stereotype of my generation to assure you that, yes, this book does indeed reach us. Here is a character to whom we can relate, no matter on what level. Adults should not be so quick to condemn this generation — we live in a different world, yes, but it strikes me as ironic that those who criticize this generation forget
who raised it, and they should not be so quick to
assume that texting automatically depletes the genuine nature of any of our “teenage drama.” We are raised in different worlds but Holden Caulfield remains an icon in each.
— GraceJC
What is this teen saying about the book, The Catcher in the Rye? Also what is her opinion about teens and adults today? Give details to support your answer. / What is she saying about teens and adults?
Define “disdain” -
What comparison is used here? Explain what she means.
How can texting deplete the genuine nature of the “teenage drama”?
How is today’s teens “world” different from Holden’s?
How can Holden be considered an “icon” for this generation?