Practice Test Answers

Read the excerpt from "The Tell-Tale Heart.” TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily—how calmly I can tell you the whole story. Read the excerpt from "The Black Cat.” Hereafter, perhaps, some intellect may be found which will reduce my phantasm to the common-place—some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than my own, which will perceive, in the circumstances I detail with awe, nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects. Both narrators are unreliable because they both

Read the excerpt from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. "Well, it was this way,” returned Mr. Enfield: "I was coming home from some place at the end of the world, about three o’clock of a black winter morning, and my way lay through a part of town where there was literally nothing to be seen but lamps. Street after street and all the folks asleep—street after street, all lighted up as if for a procession and all as empty as a church—till at last I got into that state of mind when a man listens and listens and begins to long for the sight of a policeman.” What is the mood of the excerpt?

Which best explains why this excerpt is part of the plot’s exposition?

Read the excerpt from chapter 3 of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde . "Well, but since we have touched upon this business, and for the last time I hope,” continued the doctor, "there is one point I should like you to understand. I have really a very great interest in poor Hyde. I know you have seen him; he told me so; and I fear he was rude. But I do sincerely take a great, a very great interest in that young man; and if I am taken away, Utterson, I wish you to promise me that you will bear with him and get his rights for him. I think you would, if you knew all; and it would be a weight off my mind if you would promise.” How does the conflict in this excerpt create suspense?

Read the passage from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde . Guest’s eyes brightened, and he sat down at once and studied it with passion. "No sir,” he said: "not mad; but it is an odd hand.” "And by all accounts a very odd writer,” added the lawyer. Just then the servant entered with a note. "Is that from Dr. Jekyll, sir?” inquired the clerk. "I thought I knew the writing. Anything private, Mr. Utterson?” "Only an invitation to dinner. Why? Do you want to see it?” "One moment. I thank you, sir;” and the clerk laid the two sheets of paper alongside and sedulously compared their contents. "Thank you, sir,” he said at last, returning both; "it’s a very interesting autograph.” The prediction that is most supported by the passage is that Guest will say the note was written by

Based on Poole’s behavior in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , readers can infer that he

Read the excerpt from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Two doors from one corner, on the left hand going east the line was broken by the entry of a court; and just at that point a certain sinister block of building thrust forward its gable on the street. It was two storeys high; showed no window, nothing but a door on the lower storey . . . Which detail from the excerpt best establishes the gothic setting?