English 9

Fall Semester Final – Study Guide

Texts (Know the Authors of EACH story)

A Sound of Thunder

The Most Dangerous Game

The Gift of the Magi

Pancakes

The Necklace

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

The Cask of Amontillado

A Christmas Memory

The Scarlet Ibis

To Kill a Mockingbird

I. Matching

II. True / False

III. Components of a Short Story

IV. Short Stories/Novel (Plot Questions)

V. Quotes from To Kill a Mockingbird

  1. Know the components and DEFINITIONS for the parts of plot (StoryPlotMountain)
  2. Types of conflict (are they internal or external?)
  3. What is/are:

  1. Setting
  2. Mood
  3. Character Traits
  4. Flashback
  5. Conflict
  6. Irony
  7. Foreshadowing
  8. Point of View (know and define the different types)
  9. Narrator

A Sound of Thunder

  1. What is the plot of the story?
  2. What is the setting of the story?
  3. What changes from the beginning to the end of the story?
  4. What are the rules for going on the safari?
  5. What makes this story considered part of the “science fiction” genre?

The Most Dangerous Game

  1. What is the plot of the story? What is IRONIC about the what happens to the main character?
  2. What animal do the main character and his shipmate discuss at the beginning of the story? Why is this conversation ironic?
  3. What does the owner of the island hunt? Why?

The Gift of the Magi

  1. What are the characters names?
  2. What do the main characters do for each other (be specific)?
  3. What exactly do the buy for one another?
  4. What is Jim’s full name? What literary device (#3) does it represent? Why?
  5. At the beginning of the story, how much money has one character been able to save?

Pancakes

  1. Who is the main character? What kinds of “quirks” does she have? How does this affect her life/relationships/job?
  2. What happens during the course of the story? Who comes to the main character’s rescue at the end?
  3. What does the main character do at her job? How does she feel about her work ethic and systems that she has put in place?

The Necklace

  1. What is the plot of the story? What are the events in which the main characters take part?
  2. Why is the main character unhappy?
  3. What happens after the necklace is lost? What does the main character finally accept at this point?

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

  1. What genre is this story?
  2. Who is the main character (narrator) in the story?
  3. What is the only thing that the narrator says out loud in the entire story?
  4. Who mentors the main character? What makes this person a good teacher in the “lessons of living”?
  5. What happens during the course of the story that makes the main character feel good about herself?

The Cask of Amontillado

  1. Who are the characters in this story? What do each of these characters do during the course of the story?
  2. Why does the narrator want revenge?
  3. What famous brotherhood is one of the characters a member? Which character?
  4. What exactly does the narrator say to his friend in order to get him to follow the narrator into the catacombs?
  5. What impression is left with the reader at the end of the story? What were the consequences of the narrator’s crime?

A Christmas Memory

  1. What are the name(s) of the main characters?
  2. What do they do together every year? How are they able to do this?
  3. At the end of the story, what happens to the narrator’s friend?
  4. How do the main characters feel about the gifts they give to one another? Why?

The Scarlet Ibis

  1. What happens at the beginning of the story that is miraculous?
  2. What does the narrator teach his brother to do?
  3. What is the little brother’s name?
  4. What was the coffin at the beginning of the story built for?
  5. For what reasons does the narrator make his brother work so hard during the summer?

To Kill a Mockingbird

  1. From whose point of view is the story told? What is the age/gender of this character?
  2. What is unique about the way this story is told (i.e. the narrator)? What is similar about how this story is narrated compared to I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings?What does Scout get into trouble for with Miss Caroline on the first day of school?
  3. What happens to the tree? Who does it?
  4. What happened to Jem’s pants? Why was it strange?
  5. How did Atticus get his nickname when he was a kid? What was it?
  6. What did Jem do to Mrs. Dubose? What then did Atticus make him do?
  7. What strange things happened in Macomb after the trail?
  8. Who represents a mockingbird in the story? Why? (more than one)
  9. What was the result of Atticus’ cross examination of the Ewells?
  10. What conclusion does Jem finally come to about Boo Radley?
  11. What does Scout do for Boo at the end of the book?
  12. What does Mr. Dolphus Raymond do that makes him a “scandal”?
  13. Who attacked Jem and Scout? What was the result of this attack? What were the different scenarios that Heck and Atticus talked about?
  14. How many times in her life did Scout see Boo Radley?
  15. What is the main theme of the book?

Who said these quotes?

  • "I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks."
  • “Hey, Boo.”
  • “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.”
  • “Sometimes a Bible in the hand of one is worse than a whiskey bottle in the had of – oh, of your father.”
  • “You never really understand a person till you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”