Inferno AP/FSA Practice

Inferno AP/FSA Practice

Skills: AP Style Types of Questions

• Reading Comprehension - literal, concrete level reading questions 

• Inference - reading between the lines Identifying/Interpreting

• Language - figurative language analysis questions 

• Literary Technique - considers what effect is created by author’s choices

• Character Analysis - identify or analyze something about a character

• Structure - Shifts in tone, structural changes, or why an author structured a text in a particular way

• Grammar/Nuts & Bolts - A grammar, vocabulary, or syntax question 

Overall Passage Questions

There are also overall passage questions that ask you to understand a whole poem or passage of prose text.

Multiple Choice

How does Dante compare Virgil’s hero Aeneas and the biblical apostle Paul in the lines: (Skill: Reading Comprehension)

Upon this journey, which you have written, / Aeneas learned many things that would bring about / Both his victory and the papal throne. / And later came the Chosen Vessel, Paul, / Who brought comfort to the Faith, / Which is the beginning of salvation’s way. / But why was I chosen to come, and who allows it? / I am not Aeneas, I am not Paul, / Not I, nor others, think me worthy of it.

• Dante contrasts the heathen Aeneas with the blessed apostle, Paul.

• Dante presents both men as being superior to him.

• Dante correlates Aeneas and Paul as being equally diligent supporters of Jesus.

• Dante suggests both men are gifted with skill from God that they used to benefit Italy.

• Dante determines neither man is as unlucky as he has become.

Multiple Choice

The comparison in the lines “Even as the flowerets, by nocturnal chill,/Bow down and close, but when the sun whitens them,/Uplift themselves all open on their stems” is a simile that serves to (Type: Identifying/ Interpreting Language)

• demonstrate how reflectively Dante shrinks at Virgil’s criticism of his cowardice

• contextualize the adversity Virgil has overcome to come to Dante’s aid

• apprise the reader of the perils Beatrice faced to gather assistance for Dante

• illustrate Dante’s growing courage upon hearing the story of Beatrice’s appeal to Virgil

• personify Dante’s growing anxiety about the journey he is about to undertake

Multiple Choice

When Virgil addresses Dante’s concerns (pg. 10), his initial tone is ______________. (Type: Literary Technique)

• callous

• caustic

• compassionate

• colloquial

• congenial

Multiple Choice

What purpose does the allusion to “the ghost of him/who made, through cowardice, the great refusal” serve in stanza 20 (at the top of pg. 16 in the Vestibule of Hell where Dante sees the Neutrals)? (Type: Literary Technique)

• His example justifies to Dante that this group of “neutrals” deserve their appalling fate.

• Dante’s treatment of him cements the portrayal of Dante’s compassion and pity for the damned, who he sympathizes with despite their sins.

• This allusion explains Dante’s point that no one can be truly neutral.

• Dante’s view of this figure illustrates that he (Dante) is an unreliable narrator.

• His placement in Hell suggests God’s justice is not absolute.

Multiple Choice

Which of the following best summarizes why Dante begins to weep in Canto 3, Stanza 8 as he embarks on the journey with Virgil, passes through the Gate to Hell, and views the scene in the Vestibule of Hell? (Type: Character Analysis)

Excerpt: There sighs, complaints, and loud laments / resounded through the darkened, starless air / almost immediately I began to weep. / Languages diverse, horrible dialects, / accents of anger, words of agony / voices high and hoarse, and sounds of pounding flesh."

• Dante realizes that he is a coward unworthy of this journey.

• Dante becomes disoriented by the overwhelming cacophony.

• Dante suffers the terrible pain everyone in the limbo circle of hell endures.

• Dante is overcome with pity for the souls he recognizes suffering eternal torments.

• Dante wishes to turn back, but Virgil refuses to allow it.

Multiple Choice

Excerpt: "Through me the way into the suffering city, / Through me the way to the eternal pain, / Through me si the way to all people lost / It was Justice that moved my Creator; / Divine Omnipotence created me / The highest Wisdom and the primal Love / Before me, there were no created things / Only eternity, and I, too, last eternal, / Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!"

The word “ye” in stanza 3 could most logically be replaced with (Type: Grammar Nuts & Bolts)

• those

• people

• you

• Dante

• reader

Open Ended

Reflection: Write a reflection on the practice questions that includes how well you did, things learned, and skills to work on.