English II Semester Exam 2023 Review

"Under the Influence" What is the purpose of the following sentence: “My father drank. He drank as a gut-punched boxer gasps for breath, as a starving dog gobbles food-compulsively, secretly, in pain and trembling.”

• To share the father’s point of view about his battle with alcoholism
• To convey the son’s sadness and empathy for his father’s weakness
• To help the reader visualize what his father looked like when he was drunk
• To express the son’s contempt for his father’s lack of self-control

"Under the Influence" What is the purpose of paragraph 6 (the one that details all of the cars the author’s father owned)?

• To show that his father was an avid collector of vintage automobiles
• To show that his father died in a drunk driving accident
• To characterize his father as reckless due to alcohol
• To establish that the story takes place in the past

"Under the Influence" What is the BEST meaning for the word scourge, according to the last paragraph from the text? Read the entire selection to gain context clues. “I am forty-four, and I know full well now that my father was an alcoholic, a man consumed by disease rather than by disappointment. What had seemed to me a private grief is in fact, of course, a public scourge.

• something that pressures someone into confession
• something that makes loud and violent noise
• something that causes great suffering or pain
• something that provides great strength and vitality

"Under the Influence" What is the connotation of the words used in the following passage? “Eventually he wakes with a grunt, Mother slings accusations at him, he snarls back, she yells, he growls, their voices clashing.”

• They are used to show that the mother and father were always angry.
• They are used to show that the children can hear them and are fearful.
• They are used to show that the author knew his parents would forgive each other.
• They are used to show that the fighting was loud and animal-like.

"Under the Influence" What is the author trying to do by using this simile in the last paragraph of the text? Re-read the entire selection to gain context clues. “I comfort myself with such knowledge, holding it against the throb of memory like an ice pack against a bruise.”

• To show that the author’s physical injuries at the hand of his alcoholic father never healed and are painful.
• To show that the author knows his situation was not an isolated one, but it doesn’t ease his suffering much.
• To show that he uses the tragic events of his past to counsel children in the same situation.
• To show that despite what pain his father caused, he is trying to help him slowly recover from his addiction.

"My Papa's Waltz" What is the BEST meaning of the word countenance on line 7 of the text? Use context clues.

• facial expression
• vocal expression
• hand gestures
• way of dressing

"My Papa's Waltz" What is the BEST interpretation of the theme of “My Papa’s Waltz?”

• Mothers often are worried about the actions of alcoholic fathers toward their children.
• Alcoholics don’t realize how scary they can be to small children when they drink
• Bedtime for children can be made easier when song and dance is used as a ploy.
• Children of alcoholics are sometimes hurt, but they still love their parents.

"My Papa's Waltz" Short Constructed Response: In the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz,” how does the author use the metaphor of the waltz to help create the theme? Use textual evidence to support your answer. Do not exceed 475 characters.

"Under the Influence" and "My Papa's Waltz" What is the BEST evidence that both fathers’ alcoholism created chaos in the house?

• “The roof might fly off, the walls might buckle from the pressure of his rage.”/ “We romped until the pans slid off the kitchen shelf;”
• “Shaking her head, our mother stubs out a cigarette he has left smoldering in the ashtray”/ “My mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself”
• “Left alone, our father prowls the house, thumping into furniture, rummaging in the kitchen, slamming doors/ We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf.”
• He climbs out, grinning dangerously, unsteady on his legs / You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt.”

"Under the Influence" and "My Papa's Waltz" Both selections are told from whose perspective?

• Both are told by children of an alcoholic father, one of whom is now a grown man
• Both are told by children of an alcoholic father, both of whom blame themselves
• Both are told by children of an alcoholic father; one of whom explains his father’s psychology
• Both are told by children of an alcoholic father, both of whom miss their dead fathers