1. Critical Reading Test Review
English I PreAP/GT

2. Test Composition
The test will assess your critical reading skills of one short story and two poems.
You will take the test over two days, in two parts:
Day 1: Critical Reading multiple choice
Day 2: Critical Reading short answers (2 – 1 single selection and 1 connecting selections question)

3. Preparation Read each selection and annotate for literary devices
Prose: “Big 5” – diction, details, figurative language, imagery and syntax
Poetry: “Big 5” & poetic devices
Also, note inferences or questions you have while you read

4. “Housepainting” by Lan Samantha Chang
Note details about the characters and their interactions
Note objects that mean more to the story that their literal presence (symbols) – medical textbook, cereal, cow’s milk, paint
How does each generation feel about love and marriage? Where do you see that in the story?
What experiences separate the generations?
What is so significant about Wei painting the house?
What is does Frances suggest is analogous (the same) to dating Wei for so long to Annie?
Why does Frances paint over what Wei painted?
Where does Annie address how life has changed for the family by the end of the story?

5. “The Sower” by Victor Hugo
Number the lines of the poem
How is each stanza structured? (syntax)
Note figurative language and sound devices
What is the old man doing in the field? Which words show the reader? (diction)
What is this poem’s theme?

6. “To Be of Use” by Marge Piercy
Number the lines
Summarize the metaphor in lines 1 – 7
Note figurative language and sound devices
Note repetition and its effect
What is meant by “work is real”?

7. Both Poems What do both poems have in common?
Write a thematic statement that connects both poems.

8. REMINDER
You MUST have your passages with you on BOTH days of the test!
Review the short answer strategy and embedding text evidence information
Part I (m/c) – Thursday 2/6
Part II (short answers) – Friday 2/7