Home Teaching Guides Teaching E238 20th-Century Fiction Midterm Exam Example

Midterm Exam Example

This midterm exam shows other possibilities for an in-class exam. It is also divided into four sections, but it relies on matching in the first section. The first section asks students to match a character to a description. The second asks for students to write their own short descriptions of characters and their importance to their associated text. Part three quizzes students on quote/passage identification, and part four gives students two options for short essays.

Conway                                                           Name________________________________
E238 Celebration #1

Part One, Who Am I? Character Match: In this section match the clue to the appropriate character. (Answer only 10 of 12, worth 20 points).

Clues:

1. I’m covered in tattoos and the ladies say I’m “well equipped” for life…
2. Everyone expects my speech to be great; I just hope it’s not over their heads…
3. Please cut my throat when I die so they don’t bury me alive…
4. I’ve seen so many men come and go they all look familiar to me…
5. Though not a Buendia, there is a room in the house named for me…
6. I smell like smoke and if you lay your head in my lap, I will tell you how to get the girl…
7. When the gaming regulatory act is passed, my luck and I will be ready to cash in…
8. When I heard the singing I thought of my poor lost love, with his big dark eyes…
9. After reading his Browning review, I knew he didn’t love his country like I do…
10. Let my animals multiply so I may bathe in champagne…
11. One can really mess things up playing with medicine, but I want Grandma to be happy…
12. I must put a gag between my teeth to keep my husband from hearing my cat howls…

Character Choices:

Lipsha Morrissey___ Jose Arcadio Segundo___ Lily___Jose Arcadio___ Pilar Ternera___Freddy Mallins___Aureliano Segundo___Gabriel Conroy___Michael Fury___ June___ Amaranta Ursula___ Santa Sophia de la Piedad___  Melquiades___ Lyman Lamartine___ Ursula___ Eli___ Marie___ Gretta Conroy ___ Molly Ivers___ Mr. Brown___ Albertine ___ Pietro Crispi___Lynette___

Part Two, Character Identifications: In a few specific phrases, identify the character by 1) explaining which text they are from, 2) their major role in the text 3) their relationship to other characters. (Answer only 10 of 12, worth 30 points).

1)Michael Furey 2) Prudencio Aguilar 3) Meme 4) Eli 5) Gerry Nanapush 6) Gordie 7) Pilar Ternera 8) Remedios the Beauty 9) Bartell D’Arcy          10) The Three Graces 11) Pietro Crispi 12) Colonel Gerineldo Marquez

Part Three, Dialogue Identifications: In a few phrases, please identify the dialogue by 1) which character said it, 2) which book it was in, and 3) the context (situation) for the dialogue. (Answer only 10 of 12, worth 30 points).

1. “If you have to go crazy, please go crazy all by yourself!”
2. “West Briton!”
3. “…and as guests of—what shall I call them?—the Three Graces…”
4. “I’ve come to realize just now that I’ve been fighting because of pride.”   
5. “There must have been three thousand of them.”
6. “My boots are filling.”
7. “Somebody had to put the tears into your eyes.”
8. “I had to do it so that the animals would keep on breeding.”
9. “I wouldn’t marry you even if I were dead.”
10. “You’d be good in a war. Where you put your eye, you put your bullet.”
11. “Let’s play for the car.”
12. “He’s a real cannibal. We’ll name him Rodrigo.”

Short Essays: Choose 1 of the 2 options. Write in clear, precise, specific and concrete language, using examples from the texts. (1-2 paragraphs, 20 Points)

Option One: Below are the Five Major Characteristics of Native American Writing. Provide a concrete example from Love Medicine of each of the five categories.
1) Influence of Oral Tradition (Shared knowledge of myths and events/ Communal experience/ Storyteller role/ Downplay individuality of authors).

                                               
2) Cyclical Time/Spherical (Non-linear circles, every moment related to every other/Repeated patterns/Space/time spherical, not linear)
 
3) Interrelatedness/Interconnectedness (Nature—Peoples—Animal/ Connections and patterns Wholeness desired over separateness/ Balance

4) The Role of the Trickster (Shape shifters/ Coyote/Rabbit/Raven/ Comical/ Speak truth to power/ Shake up the normal world)

5) Identifying Process (Reclaiming images of self/ No longer represented by Anglos
Survival factor different (more at stake) then other minorities).

Option Two: Below are the Five Major Types of Conflict. Choose one character from either “The Dead” or One Hundred Years of Solitude, and provide a concrete example from each category.