uil literary criticism 2019-2020 (tapps) - practice packet 1 · uil literary criticism invitational...

UIL LITERARY CRITICISM PRACTICE PACKET 1

Written by

Jennifer Bussey

Edited by

Noel Putnam and Keisha Bedwell

UIL Literary Criticism Practice Packet author, Jennifer Bussey has been very involved in Literary Criticism since it was a very new

contest. Her nationally published works include entries in: Contemporary Authors, Poetry for Students, Encyclopedia of

American Poetry ‐ The Twentieth Century, and Literature of Developing Nations. Bussey has been writing for Hexco Academic

since 1999. With clients as far away as Barcelona, Spain, her works have also appeared on the web and in national magazines

and newsletters, including Focus on the Family.

We are a small company that listens! If you have any questions or if there is an area that you would like fully explored, let us

hear from you. We hope you enjoy this product and stay in contact with us throughout your academic journey.

~ President Hexco Inc., Linda Tarrant

HEXCO ACADEMIC www.hexco.com

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Email: [email protected]

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Academic is only applicable for Practice Packets which may be copied expressly for the purchaser’s group or classroom at the

same physical location.

IF YOU LIKE THIS PRODUCT, WE ALSO RECOMMEND

LitCrit Practice Packet 2

LitCrit Concepts Books

LitCrit Notes LitCrit Tests LitCrit "Knowledge" E‐Mentor Vols 1 and 2

LitCrit Practice Packet eMentor 1 & 2

UIL LIT CRIT PRACTICE PACKET 1

2019‐2020

CONTENTS

1. Essay Rubric

2. Answer Sheet

3. Six Literary Criticism Tests (A‐F)

4. Answer Keys

2019‐20 Reading List

Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Othello by William Shakespeare Selections of Poetry and Prose from Percy Bysshe

Shelley For official UIL Constitution and Contest Rules for LitCrit, please review Section 940 on the document under "Contest Rules" at: http://www.uiltexas.org/academics/literary‐criticism

UIL Literary Criticism Invitational Test

GENERAL INFORMATION

AUTHOR: The author, Ms. Jennifer Bussey, competed in Literary Criticism when it was a very new contest. Her credentialsinclude an undergraduate degree in English and a Master's Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. Ms. Bussey is currently anindependent writer specializing in literature, and her work appears in reference books released nationally by major educationalpublishers., including Contemporary Authors, Poetry for Students, Novels for Students, Epics for Students, Encyclopedia ofAmerican Poetry: The Twentieth Century, and Literature of Developing Nations. Her work has also appeared in nationalmagazines, and her clients hail from as far away as Barcelona, Spain. A skilled writer, Bussey takes our study materials, practicetests, and invitationals to a new and challenging level.

INSTRUCTIONS

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS: This test is in a similar format to the actual Invitational, District, Regional, or State Tests from UIL. The time allotted for taking the entire test is 90 minutes. All sections should be completed within this time frame.

Each test has four elements as follows:Part I: Knowledge of Literary Terms and of Literary HistoryPart II: Reading ListPart III: Ability in Literary CriticismPart IV: Tiebreaker Essay

Part I. The section on Knowledge of Literary Terms and on Literary History contains questions derived from A Handbook forLiterature by Harmon and Holman. Each correct answer is valued at one point in this section.

Part II. The Reading List section covers the material on the published reading list for the year. Contestants should pick the bestanswer involving judgment in literary criticism. Each question is worth two points in this section.

Part III. The section on Ability in Literary Criticism introduces literary passages that are not on the list and poses questions inliterary criticism on the passages. Each correct answer for this section is valued at two points.

Part IV. The Tiebreaker element contains an essay to be written on a passage provided. Each contestant must write an essayfor this section, although it does not have value in grading unless two or more students tie. The essay should be graded oncontent and organization in the case of such a tie.

ABOUT HEXCO ACADEMIC: For over 25 years, Hexco has been producing educational products for students preparing forvarious academic competitions. Beginning with spelling, we have expanded into advanced spelling preparation for both TheNational Bee and UIL, and we have diversified into Accounting, Computer Applications, Computer Science, Current Issues &Events, Number Sense, Science, Social Studies, Ready Writing, and Literary Criticism, with many of our writers being past orpresent Contest Directors.

LITERARY CRITICISM STUDY MATERIALS: Designed for those students seeking to go beyond the classroom level for in-depthstudy, our offering for LitCrit competitors, Study Notes, provides a comprehensive guide to all of the selections for the currentschool year. This edition is for honing skills in analyzing the reading selections. Study Notes was crafted by Jennifer Bussey withher attention to detail and her scrupulous critiquing skills. Also available are Literary Criticism Practice Packets 1 and 2, each containing 6 practice tests, and LitCrit Concepts, available as a set of three books, or individually.

Our success is due directly to our listening to the wants and needs of the users.

We encourage your suggestions, criticism, and ideas.Call Linda Tarrant at 800-391-2891 with your thoughts.

Contestant Number ________ Multiple Choice Score (max 100) ________Final Essay Rank _____ of ______

Rubric for the Essay

The Essays are read and ranked only when a tie occurs between students in the first six places, however, failureto write an essay is grounds for disqualification. The Essay portion of the test shall be ranked by three judges whoare NOT coaches of the tied contestants. The essays of the tied students are compared only to each. For example,if a tie exists between the top two students and another tie exists for the students vying for 3rd-5th place, thestudents for the top two places are compared with each other, then the students tied for 3rd-5th place are comparedto each other. The Final Essay Rank will read as 1 of 2 or 3 of 3 ,for example.

Essay Judging Criteria How well did the student follow the instructions in Part IV?

Poor Fair Good Excellent CommentsJudge 1 _____ _____ _____ _____Judge 2 _____ _____ _____ _____Judge 3 _____ _____ _____ _____

Did the student identify the literary devices used and cite examples from the passage? Poor Fair Good Excellent Comments

Judge 1 _____ _____ _____ _____Judge 2 _____ _____ _____ _____Judge 3 _____ _____ _____ _____

Did the student express significant literary insight, identify the point of view, and tone? Poor Fair Good Excellent Comments


Did the essay flow smoothly between transitions, was it well written? Poor Fair Good Excellent Comments


Did the student use correct grammar, punctuation and spelling? Poor Fair Good Excellent Comments


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© 2019 HEXCO ACADEMIC • PO Box 199 • Hunt, TX 78024 • 800‐391‐2891 • Do not scan, post to web, or share electronically.

LitCrit Test ____ Contestant ID ___________________________

Part I ‐ Terms and History (1 point each)

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Part II ‐ Reading List (2 points each)

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50. Part III ‐ Ability (2 points each)

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SCORE

_______ Part I

_______ Part II

_______ Part III

_______ Part IV Tie‐Breaker

_______ TOTAL SCORE

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© 2019 HEXCO ACADEMIC • PO Box 199 • Hunt, TX 78024 • 800‐391‐2891 • Do not scan, post to web, or share electronically.

LitCrit Test ____ Contestant ID ___________________________

Part IV ‐ Tie‐Breaker

Literary Criticism Practice Packet 1 – Test A

©2019 HEXCO ACADEMIC • PO Box 199 • Hunt, TX 78024 • 800‐391‐2891 • Do not scan, post to web, or share electronically.

● Part I. Knowledge of Literary Terms and of Literary History 30 items (1 pt each)

1. An example of ____ is in Julius Caesar, when

Antony repeatedly and ironically refers to Caesar's killers as "honourable men." A. humor B. rhopalic C. stoicism D. antiphrasis E. enjambment

2. The heroic couplet is characterized by ____ .

A. iambic tetrameter B. iambic pentameter C. trochaic tetrameter D. trochaic pentameter E. spondaic pentameter

3. Cyclic dramas were cycles of medieval ____.

A. epic poetry B. lyric drama C. creation epics D. religious drama E. battle reenactments

4. The idea that a reader cannot fully understand

any part of a text until the whole is understood, while the whole cannot be understood until all the parts are understood, is called ____ . A. erethism B. hendiadys C. synecdoche D. hermeneutic circle E. objective correlative

5. Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book and Edgard

Rice Burroughs' Tarzan depict naturally good, though uncivilized, characters that fit the category of ____ . A. shamans B. divine right C. the noble savage D. antagonistic natives E. primitive spiritualists

6. A prose poem is distinguished by what structural quality? A. double spacing B. justified margins C. paragraph symbols D. inconsistent rhyme patterns E. completely set in quotation marks

7. When a play or story opens in the middle of

the action and then proceeds to supply information about the beginning of the action through flashbacks, the play is said to begin ____ . A. metalepsis B. lyric present C. vade mecum D. in media res E. mise en scène

8. In a tragedy the introduction, rising action,

climax, falling action, and catastrophe are often graphically represented in a structure called ____ . A. exposition B. denouement C. Freytag's Pyramid D. dramatis personae E. dramatic monologue

9. The quality in art and literature that stimulates

pity, tenderness, or sorrow is called ____ . A. ethos B. pathos C. requiem D. realism E. malediction

10. Auteur theory is applied to ____ .

A. film B. screenplays C. puppet plays D. animated shorts E. costume design

Literary Criticism Practice Packet 1 – Test B, continued


21. John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion

is considered the charter of ____ .

A. Atheism

B. Calvinism

C. Lutheranism

D. Pelagianism

E. Protestantism

22. The Russian poetic movement called ____ is

akin to the Anglo‐American movement of

imagism in that they both emphasize

exactness of word and clarity of image.

A. acmeism

B. charientism

C. logocentrism

D. expressionism

E. either C or D

23. Who wrote Pulitzer Prize‐winner Glengarry

Glen Ross?

A. David Mamet

B. Charles Fuller

C. August Wilson

D. Michael Cristofer

E. Robert Schenkkan

24. Both Sophocles' Antigone and Shakespeare's

Coriolanus are categorized as ____ .

A. passion plays

B. closet dramas

C. chronicle plays

D. Greek fate plays

E. classical tragedies

25. Karen Blickson, who wrote Out of Africa, used

the pen name ____ .

A. Alan Paton

B. Isak Dinesen

C. Evelyn Waugh

D. Nadine Gordimer

E. Katherine Mansfield

26. The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to

____ in 1953.

A. T. S. Eliot

B. Ernest Hemingway

C. Sir Winston Churchill

D. F. Scott Fitzgerald

E. no prize awarded that year

27. Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea

won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in ____.

A. 1940

B. 1946

C. 1951

D. 1953

E. 1960

28. Who wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings?

A. Alice Walker

B. Toni Morrison

C. Maya Angelou

D. James Baldwin

E. Richard Wright

29. In 1995, the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry was

awarded to ____ 's The Simple Truth.

A. Henry Taylor

B. Philip Levine

C. Richard Wilbur

D. Mona Van Duyn

E. William Meredith

30. Alice Walker's ____ won the Pulitzer Prize for

Fiction in 1983.

A. Meridian

B. Ironweed

C. Foreign Affairs

D. Lonesome Dove

E. The Color Purple

Literary Criticism Practice Packet 1 – Test C, continued


Then all I need do is run To the other end of the slope, And on tracts laid new to the sun, Begin all over to hope. 20 Some worn old tool of my own Will be turned up by the plow, The wood of it changed to stone, But as ready to wield as now. May my application so close 25 To so endless a repetition Not make me tired and morose And resentful of man's condition.

51. The first line of the poem contains ____ . A. refrain B. rime riche C. apostrophe D. rhyme royal E. internal rhyme

52. The last two lines of the second stanza mean

that____ . A. rain is needed by farmers B. one has to pay a price for living C. what one has today can be lost tomorrow D. the loss of present benefits can be

outweighed by future gain E. as a natural process, the blessing of rain

today can result in soil loss later

53. In the first line of the fourth stanza ,"force" refers to ____ . A. God's power B. geological force C. the Industrial Age D. man's brute force E. the strength of armies

54. In the persona's mind, a reversal will take

place, and ____ .

A. he will become richer

B. the mountains will remain

C. he will lose everything he has

D. the sea bottoms will become as new

fields

E. he is confident that he will adjust to these

new lands

55. As the poem nears its end, the persona's ____

becomes more evident.

A. joy

B. fear

C. anger

D. anxiety

E. depression

"Praise in Summer" By Richard Wilbur

Obscurely yet most surely called to praise,

As sometimes summer calls us all, I said

The hills are heavens full of branching ways

Where star‐nosed moles fly overhead the dead;

I said the trees are mines in the air, I said 5

See how the sparrow burrows in the sky!

And then I wondered why this mad instead

Perverts our praise to uncreation, why

Such savor's in this wrenching things awry.

Does sense so stale that it must needs derange 10

The world to know it? To a praiseful eye

Should it not be enough of fresh and strange

That trees grow green, and moles can course in

clay,

And sparrows sweep the ceiling of our day?

56. This poem is written in what form?

A. epic stanza

B. pastoral elegy

C. Italian sonnet

D. Spenserian sonnet

E. Shakespearean sonnet

Literary Criticism Practice Packet 1 – Test D, continued


61. This poem is written in ____ . A. trochaic trimeter B. iambic pentameter C. iambic tetrameter D. trochaic tetrameter E. dactyllic pentameter

62. Initially, the speaker is a casual observer, but

as the poem progresses, the tone becomes more and more ____ . A. grim B. patriotic C. resigned D. impatient E. compassionate

63. In the second stanza, Blake uses repetition to

emphasize ____ . A. his call to respond B. his personal outrage C. the truth of his observations D. the universality of the suffering E. the need for religious intervention

64. Line one contains two examples of which literary device? A. syncope B. cacophony C. alliteration D. onomatopoeia E. personification

65. The tone of this poem is one of ____ .

A. hope B. despair C. revenge D. giving up E. perseverance

● Part IV. Tie‐breaker Question (Contestants who do not complete this

question will be disqualified, even if they are not involved in ties.)

Read the following poem to determine how Wordsworth (or his persona) views the great English poet John Milton. In explaining his view of the poet, explain what qualities Wordsworth describes that form this opinion. Consider elements like tone and theme to strengthen your essay, and be sure to reference literary devices.

London, 1802 By William Wordsworth

Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower Have forfeited their ancient English dower 5 Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; Oh! raise us up, return to us again; And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart; Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: 10 Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, So didst thou travel on life's common way, In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

Literary Criticism Practice Packet 1 – Answer Keys, continued


LitCrit Tie‐Breaker Answer Guide TEST – Pkt 1 Test F

Part IV – Tie‐Breaker

NOTE: An essay is clearly a subjective type of answer. Credit should be given for the following judging criteria: how well the contestant followed the instructions accompanying the question, the excellence of the literary insights expressed, the effectiveness of the written expression, and the grammatical correctness of the writing.

ANSWER GUIDE The speaker is a mother, and the occasion of the poem is her saying goodbye to her son as he joins a war effort. She is a loving mother who wishes she could protect her son as she did when he was a baby, but she knows that he is grown and able to fight for things that matter. Themes include family legacy, honor, patriotism, maternal love, faith, and divine protection.

Literary devices include: metonymy ("earth" represents all the dangers of being out in the world, banners for armies), repetition ("son of mine"), alliteration, hyperbaton/anastrophe, syncope, and internal rhyme. The poem is composed of three quatrains with rhyme scheme abcb, and they are basically iambic pentameter. Lines 2 and 4 are neat pentameters, but lines 1 and 3 finish with an extra unaccented syllable.

uil literary criticism 2019-2020 (tapps) - practice packet 1 · uil literary criticism invitational...

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