AP文学考试样题

为了让大家切实感受到AP文学考试的题目类型和难度，以下选择了一篇有代表性的诗歌MC，还有essay 题目两篇，代表真正考试的essay 1和essay 3。

Multitple Choice Section : 

Question 1 to 12.Read the following poem carefully before you mark your answers.Remembrance

Cold in the earth—and the deep snow piled above thee.
Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave!
Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee
Severed at last by Time’s all-severing wave?

Now, when alone, do my thoughts no longer hover
Over the mountains, on that northern shore,
Resting their wings where heath and fern leaves cover
Thy noble heart forever, ever more?

Cold in the earth­—and fifteen wild Decembers,
From those brown hills, have melted into spring;
Faithful indeed is the spirit that remembers
After such years of change and suffering!

Sweet Love of youth, forgive, if I forget thee,
While the world’s tide is bearing me along;
Other desires and other hopes beset me,
Hopes which obscure, but cannot do thee wrong!

No later light has lighted up my heaven,
No second morn has ever shone for me;
All my life’s bliss from thee dear life has given,
All my life’s bliss is in the grave with thee.
But, when the days of golden dreams had perished,
And even Despair was powerless to destroy,
Then did I learn how existence could be cherished,
Strengthened, and fed without the aid of joy.

Then did I check the tears of useless passion—
Weaned my young soul from yearning after thine;
Stern denied its burning wish to hasten
Down to that tomb already more than mine.

And even yet, I dare not let it languish,
Dare not indulge in memory’s rapturous pains;
Once drinking of that divinest anguish,
How could I seek the empty world again?

1.   This poem is best identified as

A.  A ballad
B.  An apostrophe
C.  An elegy
D.  A lyric
E.   A sonnet

2.  This poem’s structure is specially that of

A.  aabb rhyme scheme throughout
B.  blank verse
C.  free verse
D.  alternating rhymed couplets
E.  alternating rhymed lines within quatrains

3.  The metaphor present in the second stanza concerns

A. northern mountains
B.  noble heart
C.  heath and fern
D.  winged thoughts
E.  hovering birds

4. Which stanza contains examples of all of the following: alliteration, assonance, anaphora, and consonance?

A.  one
B.  four
C. five
D. six
E. eight

5.  The reader can infer from this passage that the narrator has

A.  continued to weep for a loved one
B.  found new joy to live for
C.  never stopped yearning
D.  lamented a death for 15 years
E.  been unfaithful to the departed

6.  The narrator’s diction within the last two stanzas is that of

A.  a sorrowful child
B.  a desperate mourner
C.  an ominous portender
D.  a passionate young woman
E.  a struggling disciplinarian

7. The narrator’s tone in stanzas four and five can best be described as

A.  apology and acquittal
B.  lamentation and sorrow
C.  resignation and determination
D.  reminiscence and nostalgia
E.  desperation and despair

8.  In line 29, the word “it” refers to

A.  “tears of useless passion”(line 25)
B.   “my life’s bliss”(line 20)
C.   “days of golden dreams”(line 21)
D.   “my young soul”(line 26)
E.   “memory’s rapturous pain”(line 30)

9.  The narrator’s present attitude toward what might have been is one of

A.  wistful regret
B.  despair and anguish
C.  passionate remorse
D.  blissful reminiscence
E.   change and suffering

10.  Stanzas one and eight can be said to

A.  capture the message of the poem
B.  bring the poem full circle
C.  imply blissful, unrequited passion within the narrator
D.  demonstrate the narrator’s therapeutic healing
E.  remonstrate with the narrator’s suicidal notion

11.  The final stanza of this poem has at least two examples of

A.  metaphor
B.  oxymoron
C.  synecdoche
D.  onomatopoeia
E.  conceit

12.  The reader can infer from stanza four that

A.   a new love has entered the narrator’s life
B.   the narrator has worse things to cope with than another’s death
C.  one’s existence can only be strengthened by feeding it with joy
D.  life, even after great loss, can and should continue
E.   the narrator was destroyed by Despair

13.  The narrator makes reference to all of the following EXCEPT

A.   the passing of 15 years
B.  new hopes and desires that obscure memory
C.  memories like winged spirits
D.  the inability to live without the departed
E.  fear of the soul’s indulgence in rapturous pain

Essay question 1
The following excerpt is taken from Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act I. Read it carefully and then in a well-organized essay analyze Macbeth's internal conflict before his murder of King Duncan. You may wish to consider tone, figures of speech, diction, imagery or any other relevant literary element.

If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly. If th’assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success: that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all, here,
But here upon this bank and shoal of time,
We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgement here, that we but teach
Bloody instructions which, being taught, return
To plague th’inventor. This even-handed justice
Commends th’ingredience of our poisoned chalice
To our own lips. He’s here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued against
The deep damnation of his taking-off,
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself
And falls on th’other.

Essay question 2
From a novel or play, identify a character (not necessarily the protagonist) who, regardless of the consequences, takes a risk of some kind. Then in a well-organized essay, describe the risk and its motivation. Also explain how the character's action illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. Choose any of the titles in the following list, or choose one of comparable literary merit. Avoid mere plot summary.

The Catcher in the Rye
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet
A Doll's House
A Tale of Two Cities
Macbeth
The Awakening
Anna Karinina
Crime and Punishment
Jane Eyre
The Old Man and the Sea
Paradise Lost
Moby Dick
The Red Badge of Courage
Dr. Faustus
Antigone
Robinson Crusoe
King Lea