Question: Which of the following offers the best definition of the literary term motif ?

• 1. A recurring element in a story that is symbolically significant
• 2. A character’s fatal flaw
• 3. A rhyme scheme
• 4. A character’s moment of selfrealization in a narrative

Question: Which of the following offers the best description of the concept of ethos ?

• 1. Ethos refers to a writer’s presentation of character and image.
• 2. Ethos refers to a writer’s ability to present evidence.
• 3. Ethos refers to a writer’s ability to inspire action in readers.
• 4. Ethos refers to a writer’s ability to inspire emotional responses in readers.

Question: As a mode of literary criticism or theory, formalism attempted to bring which of the following to literary studies ?

• 1. An awareness of the historical circumstances surrounding a text’s production
• 2. A set of objective criteria for critical analysis
• 3. An awareness of the economic circumstances surrounding a literary text
• 4. Strict criteria for evaluating the quality of a literary text

Question: In his preface to “Lyrical Ballads”, Wordsworth calls for poetry to be written in what kind of language?

• 1. Typically poetic and fanciful language
• 2. Ancient languages
• 3. Complicated and difficult language
• 4. Common, everyday language

Question: Which of the following offers the best description of the concept of pathos ?

• 1. Pathos refers to a writer’s presentation of character and image.
• 2. Pathos refers to a writer’s ability to present evidence.
• 3. Pathos refers to a writer’s ability to inspire action in readers.
• 4. Pathos refers to a writer’s ability to inspire emotional responses in readers.

Question: What is one reason that Mystery Plays are referred to as such ?

• 1. They involve the solving of a crime.
• 2. They explore mysterious religious topics.
• 3. They were written by medieval mystics.
• 4. They were produced by medieval craft guilds, which were knows as “mysteries”.

Question: Which of the following statements offers the best characterization of a Greek tragedy ?

• 1. In a Greek tragedy, evil people are vanquished by the forces of good.
• 2. In a Greek tragedy, characters undergo reversals of fortune, usually for the worse.
• 3. In a Greek tragedy, the hero suffers but always survives at the end of the play.
• 4. In a Greek tragedy, the tragic hero dies at the end of the play.

Question: Which of the following statements demonstrates the use of pathos ?

• 1. According to research, 22 percent of the American population owns an unsecured handgun.
• 2. I own a handgun and keep it in a secure place in my house.
• 3. Every month in the United States, at least 100 children are wounded or killed as a result of unsecured handguns.
• 4. Handguns don’t kill people, people do

Question: According to Anthony DiMatteo’s “Shakespeare and the Public Discourse of Sovereignty: ’Reason of State’ in ’Hamlet’”, how does Shakespeare tend to present political rulers in Hamlet?

• 1. Shakespeare presents political rulers as flawless, perfect human beings.
• 2. Shakespeare presents political rulers as often meeting ruinous and violent endings.
• 3. Shakespeare only presents fictional political rulers and does not explore any political realities.
• 4. Shakespeare considers all political rulers to be corrupt.

Question: The Freudian concept of “the uncanny” refers to_________________?

• 1. a feeling of being disconnected from the world.
• 2. a sense of something being familiar and foreign at once.
• 3. terror at the thought of death.
• 4. a realization of one’s empowered position in the world.