Friday, September 5, 2008

10th Grade Unit I Test Study Guide

You must be able to identify, define, or give examples of these literary terms:

theme

conflict

refrain

allegory

symbol

setting

You must be able to summarize Excelsior, Hinds' Feet On High Places, and To Build a Fire.

You must be able to answer any of the comprehension questions covering Excelsior, Hinds' Feet On High Places, and To Build a Fire. These answers should be in your notes.

You must be able to discuss the allegorical meaning of specific moments taken from Hinds' Feet On High Places.

You must be able to thoroughly analyze the symbolic meaning of "Excelsior"

You must be able to identify a passage taken from one of these three works and analyze it in terms of its plot, its relevance, and the literary elements present. (This will be the same format as Spring semester's final exam.)

9th Grade Unit I Test Study Guide

1. You must be able to identify, define, or give examples of these literary terms. When you define these terms, make sure you use the definition that I gave you in class.


theme

point of view

The first person perspective

The third person limited perspective

The third person omniscient perspective

poetic justice

2. You must also be able to answer any of the comprehension questions taken from these stories: A Just Judge, The Stub Book, As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap, and The Death Disk. All of these questions and answers should be in your notes.

3. You must be able to write a short essay that compares and contrasts the theme of justice within two of the four stories covered. These two stories will be MY choice, so make sure you are capable of discussing the meaning of justice within ANY of the stories.

  • HINT: When you think about the meaning of justice in these stories, ask yourself "Is justice relative or absolute within the story? Is there a clear right or wrong answer? Is there a clear division between good and bad in the story?"

4. Your extra credit will cover the vocabulary taken from "The Word of the Day"

Thursday, September 4, 2008

10th Grade Answer Key to "To Build a Fire"

1. What does the dog have that the man does not?

The dog has instinct which allows it to understand the danger it is facing in the brutally cold weather.

2. Why was it difficult for the man to eat?

It was difficult for the man to eat because ice and frost had frozen onto his jaw, and this made it difficult for him to open his mouth completely. In addition to that, the weather was so cold that his food froze quickly when it was not tucked against his body.

3. What huge mistake does the man make when building his fire?

The man makes two big mistakes. First, he builds his fire beneath a tree, so as the heat of the fire rises, the snow on the branches of the tree starts to melt and falls onto the fire, extinguishing it. Second, in his desperation to build a fire, he burns all of his matches at the same time, thus removing any possiblity that he can start another fire when those matches burn up.

4. What was the man's last attempt to survive?

After the man tries to lure the dog to him in order to kill it and use its body for warmth, the man then tries to run in order to stay warm. However, at that point, his body is so frostbitten that he is not really capable of running any longer.

5. How is the man's death described?

The man's death is described as slowly drifting off to sleep. London compares it to taking an anesthetic and slowly falling into a vision filled state of sleep.

9th Grade Homework 'The Death Disk' Answer Key

A Summary of 'The Death Disk'

As Colonel Mayfair and his young wife await the soldiers who are to take him to the Tower of London, their seven year old daughter, Abby, comes to tell them good night. Unaware of the fact that her father is going to a trial where he will be killed, she innocently asks her father to tell her a dreadful story. The young father tells Abby about three colonels who are condemned to die for disobeying the commands of their head officer. The little girl does not understand that the story is about her father. Soldiers appear at the door, and Colonel Mayfair is marched away to the Tower.
The next morning, Mrs. Mayfair is ill, and Abby decides to go to the Tower and find her father. Meanwhile, inside the Tower, the Lord General (Oliver Cromwell) wants the prisoners to draw lots, so that only one of them must die. But the colonels refuse because they feel it would be a sin—suicide—to condemn oneself by drawing the unlucky lot. Cromwell then decides to have a child cast the lots for the men by giving each one a disk of wax, red being the “death disk.” By chance, Abby is selected and brought inside to the Lord General, who does not know who she is. She wins his heart, and he promises to obey her command.
The Lord General instructs Abby to give a disk of wax to each of the men in the next room. When Abby recognizes her father, she gives him the “pretty red one.” Everyone in the room is shocked and dismayed that the unfortunate colonel has been condemned by his own daughter. Abby does not understand, but she commands the Lord General to free her papa. Reminded of his pledge, Cromwell gladly releases Colonel Mayfair to this charming little girl.


Comprehension Questions and Answers

1. For what crime were the three colonels tried? What was the sentence?

The three colonels disobeyed their commands by going beyond the orders. The first sentence was that all three men were to die, but then the Lord General, Oliver Cromwell, changed it so that only one had to die.

2. Why did the colonels refuse to draw lots? How did the Lord General determine to draw lots for them?

The colonels thought that drawing lots was a form of suicide, which was against their Christian beliefs. The Lord General decided to use a child to cast lots for the colonels.

3. Which colonel received the death disk? Why?

Colonel Mayfair, Abby’s father, received the death disk. Abby wanted her father to have the “prettiest disk”—which was the red one, the one that meant death. She gave it to him because she wanted him to have the one she liked the most.

4. What pledge did the Lord General give to little Abby? How did Abby use this pledge to free her father?

He promised Abby that he would do anything that she wanted—he would fulfill any command that Abby gave him. Abby commanded that the Lord General free her father.

5. Was the Lord General’s final decision just? Explain.


Answers may vary. Here are two examples of possible answers:

Yes, his decision was just, because Colonel Mayfair did not have any personal reason to disobey the command, so he didn’t deserve to die.


No, it was not just, because the Lord General went against his rule because of his own individual pledge to a little girl, so it was an abuse of power.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

9B Homework due Friday, 9/5

  • Read "The Death Disk" and write out the definitions of the vocabulary words given to you at the end of the story.

  • Then, in your notebook, write out the answers to your comprehension questions. Write each answer thoroughly and thoughtfully.

  • We will be checking this work tomorrow in class.

10th Grade Homework Due Friday, 9/5

Finish reading "To Build a Fire" and do comprehension questions 1-4 in the homework section of your notebook. We will be checking your answers tomorrow in class.

In addition to answering the questions within the book, you must also answer these five questions.

1. What does the dog have that the man does not?

2. Why was it difficult for the man to eat?

3. What huge mistake does the man make when building his fire?

4. What was the man's last attempt to survive?

5. How is the man's death described?

10th Grade Homework due Thursday, 9/4

Explain how Hannah Hurnard's Hinds' Feet on High Places is an allegory and what it stands for allegorically.


Hannah Hurnard’s ‘Hinds Feet on High Places’ is an allegory that represents what happens when a person seeks Christ and becomes a Christian. The story begins with Much-Afraid, a young shepherdess who works for the Chief Shepherd. Much-Afraid has a heart that desires to serve the Chief Shepherd, but she also has some deformities and flaws that keep her from serving him in the way that she wants. She is crippled, ugly, and comes from a family of Fearings. Allegorically, Much-Afraid represents how a new Christian or a non-Christian who wants to know God is kept from knowing Him through their fear and their own sense of their sin. She represents a person who wants to know God but who doesn’t exactly know how they can find Him, relate to Him, or be changed as a result of knowing Him.
In addition to these internal struggles, Much Afraid has some outside forces that make it difficult for her to follow the Chief Shepherd, especially her family, who each allegorically represent a different kind of fear or a different kind of insecurity that can keep someone from experiencing God in a real way.
In the story, Much-Afraid’s family wants her to marry her cousin, Craven Fear. Much-Afraid does not want this but is too frightened to do anything about it. Finally, she seeks the Chief-Shepherd at his watering place, and he tells her that he wants to rescue her from this marriage and bring her to the High Places, where perfect love casts out fear. Allegorically, this represents the time that a person does not want to be married to the sinful and secular things of the world, but still does not know how to escape the temptations of the world… and in a way, the person becomes nearly paralyzed. However, finally, the person can seek God through prayer or through the scripture, and they can find the promise that He will bring us to the High-Places, which means that He will bring us to a place where our fears and sin cannot touch us and where we can be cleansed and purified.


When Much-Afraid meets with the Shepherd, He tells her that she first must change her name and also have the flower of Love in her heart. This flower of Love allegorically represents our belief in Christ’s love and sacrifice on the cross for our sins—and the need to change our name represents the time when we are re-born after we become a Christian. Much- Afraid is afraid to receive this flower of love because she thinks that pain comes with love, but this is because she believes that the love the Chief Shepherd is referring to is romantic love, and not what it really is, which is unconditional love. When Much Afraid realizes that this love is safe to receive, she asks the Chief Shepherd for the seed of love, and he plants it in her heart. He takes the seed out of his heart and puts it in his palm. This seed is shaped exactly like a thorn—so allegorically it represents Christ’s death on the cross for our sins. When she receives the seed, it gives her pain, but soon the pain fades into a great sense of sweetness, and she slowly starts to become more lovely. The Chief Shepherd tells her that now that she has this seed of love, even when he is not with her, he can always hear her whenever she speaks to him. This allegorically represents how sometimes, Christians may feel that they are separated from God but when they call out to Him, they realize that He is there for them.


Much-Afraid leaves the Chief Shepherd so that she can prepare to go with Him to the High Places, and before she leaves, the Chief Shepherd tells her that she must not tell anybody about it and that He will call to her with a secret song when it is time to go. When she hears this song, she should meet with him at their secret meeting place. As Much-Afraid is walking home, she sees Craven Fear standing in her path. He torments her and starts to hurt her, but just then, the Chief Shepherd comes and his very presence makes Craven Fear flee. When the Chief Shepherd leaves, Much-Afraid is filled with guilt because she did not call on the Shepherd’s name when Craven Fear was attacking her, and because of that, she was torn and bruised by him. She is ashamed and doubts whether she is worthy to make it to the High Places. This allegorically symbolizes how after we become Christians, we are filled with hope and forget that we still have sin in our lives—so when we fall into our sin again, we are filled with guilt and feel like we are not worthy to be in the presence of God. We do not understand how God extends grace to us and how His grace protects us from being completely destroyed by our sin or fear.

The next morning, Much Afraid wakes without fear and is filled with joy, hope, and song for the day ahead. However, as the day progressed, her house was filled with all her Fearing relatives and they all tried to convince her that a marriage to Craven Fear would not be so bad. They closed the door to her house and locked it—and just at that time, the Chief Shepherd came out singing his song. She wanted to answer his call, but then her cousin Coward grabbed her and suffocated her so that she fainted and could not leave to answer the Shepherd’s call. The family of Fearings decided that they should stay in her home overnight. Much Afraid slowly regained her senses, and she ran desperately to her window and called for the help of Mrs. Valiant. Mrs. Valiant came running and threatened the Family of Fearings by letting them know that she would call the Chief Shepherd if they did not leave. The family fled the house and Mrs. Valiant comforted Much Afraid and told her to rest since it was too late to meet the Chief Shepherd at the trysting place. The way that Much Afraid’s family kept her from meeting the Shepherd allegorically represents how our fears can keep us from coming to him—and the way that Mrs. Valiant rescues Much Afraid represents how Christ gives us bravery to overcome these fears so that we can continually seek to meet him and not let one failure define who we are.

That night, Much Afraid woke suddenly, and she realized that even though it was late, she must run to the Shepherd no matter what. She left her house and began searching for him— finally she came to the sheep folds, and two shepherds stopped her. She asked them where the Chief Shepherd was, and they told her that the Chief Shepherd had left to go into the mountains. Much Afraid was filled with despair, but then she wondered if maybe he was waiting for her at their secret meeting place. She turned from the watchmen and ran to the meeting place. There, at the meeting place, the Chief Shepherd was waiting for her. She fell at his feet and begged him, saying “Take me with you. Don’t leave me behind.” The Chief Shepherd, instead of being angry at her, gently told her that he knew she would come, and that his song to her had only told her to meet him at sunrise. He told her that she was not late, and that he was leaving for the High Places with her. She told him that she would follow him anywhere. He took her by the hand and they began their journey into the mountains.

This last part of the story allegorically represents how once we have Christ within us, we might think that we can wait to talk to Him and meet Him, but these thoughts do not last long. We feel a strong desire to run to Him and be in His presence, even though we may run to Him limping, wounded, and imperfect. The most wonderful thing about all of this though is not how we run to Him, but how He ALWAYS receives us with love and not with anger. He does not punish us, but instead, accepts us as we are. He accepts us no matter what our state and brings us near Him, so that He can lead us to the highest place—a place that is without fear and filled with his unconditional love.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

9th Grade Comprehension Questions 1-10 for 'The Black Arrow'

  • 9A- you must answer these comprehension questions concerning 'The Black Arrow' pgs 1-19 by Friday, September 5th.

  • 9B- you must answer these comprehension questions concerning 'The Black Arrow' pgs 1-19 by Friday, September 5th.

Answer each question thoughtfully and thoroughly. Provide a page reference for each answer given.

1. What unusual thing happens in the afternoon at Tunstall Moat House?

2. When this unusual thing happens, how do the townspeople react? Where do they meet?

3. What had happened half an hour before this bell rang?

4. Who is Sir Daniel Brackley?

5. Who is Sir Oliver Oates? What is his job?

6. Who is Master Richard Shelton? Describe him.

7. What news had the express (messenger) brought to the town?

8. What command was given to the people in this message?

9. Who must lead the group of men to the battle?

10. What is the cost of the war for the common people, according to the woman in the crowd?

Monday, September 1, 2008

10th Grade Homework for 9/2

10A and 10B- your compositions analyzing "Hinds Feet on High Places" are due tomorrow, 9/2. 

  • Also, be sure to study your vocabulary and finish reading "To Build a Fire" in the textbook.


9th Grade Homework for 9/2

9A- Write out the answers to the comprehension questions for The Stub Book and study your vocabulary.


9B- Read The Death Disk and study your vocabulary. 


* Bring The Black Arrow to EL-C tomorrow!