(Answer both a and b.) a) Paraphrase the following sonnet by Wordsworth, restating each idea in simple prose: The World Is Too Much with Us The World is too much with us; late and soon, We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. b) What is Wordsworth's attitude toward the spirit of commercialism in life? What is his attitude toward nature? PART IV (Answer either 1 or 2.) 1. Select four names from the following list and give the name of some woman whom the author associates with each. Briefly characterize each of these 2. Define five of the following words, and write sentences illustrating their Comprehensive Examination ENGLISH Tuesday, June 18 9 a.m.-12 m. However accurate in subject-matter, no paper will be considered satisfactory if seriously defective in punctuation, spelling, or other essentials of good usage. Allow a full hour for Part II. PART I (Choose two questions from Part I.) 1. In a Shakespearean tragedy there is usually a scene which marks the turning-point in the fortunes of the hero. Select such a scene from one of Shakespeare's tragedies, describe the events which happen in it, and show how these events affect the subsequent career of the hero. 2. If you were living in London between 1750 and 1800, what literary men should you hear most about and what writings of theirs should you probably be reading? 3. Choose any novel with which you are familiar. Name and discuss an inci dent in the plot that is a direct result of the character or personality of one of the actors. 4. Name and illustrate the chief differences between prose and poetry. Write in several paragraphs a composition of about four hundred words upon one of the following subjects. Choose such aspects of the subject as you can well discuss according to an orderly, consecutive plan in which each paragraph shall be one stage. 1. Write a letter, with proper heading and conclusion, intended to persuade a friend to enter the college of your own choice. -2. Revolutionary Russia. 3. What makes a story popular? 4. Why do women wish to vote? 5. My automobile and I. 6. The customs of a strange community that you know or have visited. 7. The effect of the war upon your school. 8. The Y.M.C.A. (or some similar organization) as a factor in winning the war. 9. Press censorship in time of war. 10. How I have earned money outside of school. (SEE NEXT PAGE) (Answer No. 1 and No. 2.) 1. Paraphrase the following lines from Lowell's Commemoration Ode, restating each idea in simple prose: Weak-winged is song, Nor aims at that clear-ethered height Bringing our robin's-leaf to deck their hearse 2. Condense the thought of these lines into one sentence. PART IV (Answer No. 1 and No. 2.) 1. Define five of the following words, and write sentences illustrating their proper 2. Make a list of verbs expressing rapid motion; of nouns expressing a loud noise; of adjectives expressing great size. Comprehensive Examination ENGLISH Monday, September 16 9 a.m.-12 m. However accurate in subject-matter, no paper will be considered satisfactory if seriously defective in punctuation, spelling, or other essentials of good usage. Allow a full hour for Part II. PART I (Choose two questions from Part I.) 1. In what ways does an oration differ from an essay? Illustrate your answer by specific examples. 2. From the life of some person whose biography you have read select an episode that seems to you particularly characteristic. Retell this episode and show wherein it is characteristic. 3. (Answer a and either b or c.) a) Choose one of the following poets: Milton, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Tennyson, Browning. Mention several of his poems which you have read. b) What passages in these poems do you remember most clearly? What qualities make these passages memorable ? c) From these poems quote ten or fifteen lines. What qualities make these lines worth memorizing? 4. In a Shakespearean tragedy the hero is usually called upon to make a momentous decision which is to affect his future action. Illustrate this from any tragedy of Shakespeare which you have read, stating the question at issue and showing what influences determine the hero's decision. How does the hero's character affect the decision? PART II Write in several paragraphs a composition of about four hundred words upon one of the following subjects. Choose such aspects of the subject as you can well discuss according to an orderly, consecutive plan in which each paragraph shall be one stage. 1. What we owe to England. 2. A Liberty Loan campaign. 3. Camouflage. 4. The part that women have played in the war. 5. The work of the Junior Red Cross in your school. 6. An electric light plant. 7. Planning and equipping a modern kitchen. 8. If you were principal of a school. 9. Write a letter to a friend about the best book you have recently read, making clear to him why he should read it. 10. What you have done to help win the war. (SEE NEXT PAGE) (Answer No. 1 and No. 2.) 1. Paraphrase the following lines from Tennyson's Will, restating each idea in simple prose: O well for him whose will is strong! He suffers, but he will not suffer long; He suffers, but he cannot suffer wrong. For him nor moves the loud world's random mock, Nor all Calamity's hugest waves confound, Who seems a promontory of rock, That, compass'd round with turbulent sound, But ill for him who, bettering not with time, Recurring and suggesting still! He seems as one whose footsteps halt, And o'er a weary sultry land, Far beneath a blazing vault, Sown in a wrinkle of the monstrous hill, The city sparkles like a grain of salt. 2. How does Tennyson emphasize the contrast between the two ideas expressed in the poem? PART IV (Answer No. 1 and No. 2.) 1. Define five of the following words and write sentences illustrative of their use: 2. Detach the part of this examination paper marked "Supplementary Sheet"; write your name on the sheet; and then punctuate, capitalize, and otherwise correct on the supplementary sheet the passage there reprinted from Washington Irving's Christmas Day. Inclose the supplementary sheet in your examination book before you hand it in. (SEE NEXT PAGE) |