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Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. Why does Mr. Coulson tell his servant to "bring an axe" (335)?
2. When Mr. Coulson asks for his "aconite," what is he asking for (333)?
3. What claim is the narrator making by calling humans "lineal scions of the pansy" (332)?
4. When "May holds up a chiding finger," (332), what is May's intention?
5. What is the "twist" at the end of this story?
Short Essay Questions
1. When Mr. Coulson finally confesses his feelings to Mrs. Widdup, what drawback to himself does he acknowledge, and what advantage does he say balances this drawback out?
2. How do words like "yaller" and "lawsy" in Mrs. Widdup's dialogue characterize her?
3. When Miss Coulson says that the supposedly chilly weather is "An instance...of winter lingering in the lap of spring," what double meaning does she have in mind? (335).
4. Explain the technique at work in the sentences "Sparrows wrangled happily everywhere outdoors. Never trust May" (333).
5. When Mr. Coulson complains that no one in the house cares if he lives or dies, how does Mrs. Widdup's reply set the events of the story in motion?
6. When rhetorical purposes are served by the passage where the narrator says that the scent of flowers was carried in through the window and "fought" with the scent of Mr. Coulson's gout medicine?
7. How does O. Henry use dry humor to reveal the narrator's opinion about Mrs. Widdup in the narrative intrusion on page 333?
8. What happens overnight that changes Mrs. Widdup and Mr. Coulson's fate?
9. What is the thematic significance of the olfactory image of the city in springtime?
10. Explain the significance of the diction "foxy" to describe Mrs. Widdup (333).
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Write an essay in which you analyze the characterization of Mr. Coulson and make a claim about its significance in the story. Use textual evidence to support your claim.
Essay Topic 2
Write an essay that compares and contrasts the themes and techniques used in Dekker's poem "The Merry Merry Month of May" with those of O. Henry's "The Marry Month of May." Use textual evidence from both pieces to defend your ideas.
Essay Topic 3
Make and defend a claim about O. Henry's "The Marry Month of May" as an example of American Naturalism. Support your ideas with evidence from the text; if you use outside sources, be sure to cite them in MLA format.
This section contains 1,121 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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