Unit 1: Short Fiction I
English Lit · Unit 1 · Paper 2

Short Fiction I unit test

A test on this unit alone, marked as a percentage and a letter grade — for the test your class is actually sitting, rather than for May. Answer everything, then submit once: seeing the answer to question 3 before attempting question 4 makes the final percentage meaningless.

Paper 1Paper 2Paper 3
Each paper is built from this unit’s 20 terms and is the same for everyone, so a teacher can assign “Unit 1, Paper 2” and every student sits the identical test. Multiple choice is marked objectively; the written sections you mark yourself against the model answer and rubric.
Suggested time 33 min 30 points0/17 attempted
1

Setting

2

Conflict types

3

Symbol

4

Narrative distance

5

Round vs flat character

6

Narrative perspective

7

Motif

8

Theme

9

Direct vs indirect characterization

10

Foil

11

Unreliable narrator

12

Free indirect discourse

Short answer 1. Define or explain: In medias res

3 pts

Short answer 2. Define or explain: Tone in fiction

3 pts

Short answer 3. Define or explain: Protagonist and antagonist

3 pts

Short answer 4. Define or explain: Point of view and reliability

3 pts

Free response

6 pts

This course has no free-response prompt tagged to this unit, so one from elsewhere in the course is used. It is still worth writing — the skill transfers.

Poetry Analysis (Question 1, suggested time: 40 minutes). Read the following poem by Emily Dickinson (c. 1862) carefully. The Soul selects her own Society — Then — shuts the Door — To her divine Majority — Present no more — Unmoved — she notes the Chariots — pausing — At her low Gate — Unmoved — an Emperor be kneeling Upon her Mat — I’ve known her — from an ample nation — Choose One — Then — close the Valves of her attention — Like Stone — Write an essay that analyzes how Dickinson uses literary elements and techniques to convey the speaker’s complex understanding of the soul’s act of choosing.