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Alyssa Stanford » Honors English I: Summer Reading

Honors English I: Summer Reading

Dear Honors English I Student,

Welcome to Honors English I! I am excited about starting a new school year with you, so I hope you are excited as well. Starting next school year, we will be reading and writing frequently, as well as improving our communication skills, in order to prepare for the 9th grade End of Course Exam and other tests you will be required to take during your high school career. If you start this school year prepared to work in a fast-paced and challenging environment, and you are open to the concepts we will learn, I firmly believe you will have a fun and rewarding experience in my classroom.

By choosing to enroll in Honors English, you are committing yourself and your time to academic excellence. This includes time for independent reading projects. One of the requirements for Honors English I at SCHS is to complete a reading project to prepare for the year and to give us an opportunity to begin our journey into the world of literature.

We will read the following short stories and poems from Edgar Allan Poe: “The Cask of Amontillado”, “The Masque of the Red Death”, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, “The Raven”, and “Annabel Lee”. 

I am looking forward to the new school year with you, and I hope you are excited and willing to engage with the diverse works of literature we will explore this coming year. By doing so, my hope is that you will finish this year with a variety of knowledge, skills, and experiences you can take with in your future endeavors. *Please note that 2nd semester students will turn in this project in JANUARY*

Sincerely,

Alyssa Stanford

Your visual project is at the end of this document. You will present it to the class the first week of school.

You will answer the following questions on a sheet of notebook paper. You MUST write the questions AS WELL AS PROVIDE TEXT EVIDENCE THAT PROVES YOUR ANSWER CHOICES.

The Cask of Amontillado

1. What does the narrator plan to do?
2. Which of the following best describes the interaction between Fortunato and the narrator?
A. The narrator smokes a pipe with Fortunato in his basement, which causes Fortunato to become sick with a cough.
B. The narrator convinces Amontillado to buy wine from him at a high price, even though the wine is most likely not worth the money.
C. The narrator manipulates Fortunato into following him into the vault by flattering him and pretending he does not actually want Fortunato to come.
D. The narrator persuades Fortunato to go down to the basement to get rid of his cold by complimenting him and expressing sincere worry for his health.
 
3. What happens once the two men arrive in the depths of the vault?
4.Which of the following sayings best describes a theme of the text?
A. Pride cometh before the fall. B. Do not insult those who are easily wounded. C. The desire for revenge can be all-consuming. D. Forgive and forget is the best course of action.
5.How does the description of the Montresor coat of arms and motto in paragraphs contribute to the reader's understanding of Montresor's character?
A. It helps the reader understand Montresor's pride, as well as how he responds to insult.
B. It helps the reader understand that Fortunato is a snake and that Montresor must crush him.
C. It helps the reader perceive Montresor as a snake and Fortunato as a human foot, crushing the snake. D. It helps the reader compare the respectability of Montresor with the respectability of Fortunato.
6. What does the following line suggest about the narrator's point of view? "My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so."
A. The statement suggests emotional turmoil or a moment of remorse.
B. The statement reveals the effect the cold damp area has on the narrator's heart.
C. The statement suggests that the narrator is not a cold-blooded killer but a person suffering from heart issues.
D. The statement reveals the effect that sweating while working in a cold area has on the mental state of the narrator.
7. How do carnival traditions add to the mood of the story?
A. The drinking, eating, and partying create a mood of connection and community.
B. The capes, masks, and party create a mood of excitement and merriment.
C. The wild parties, masks, and hidden faces create a mood of secrecy and unease.
D. The masks, catacombs, and family burial plots create a mood of remorse and sadness.
8. How does the characterization of Fortunato affect the plot of the story?
A. Fortunato's kindness leads him to treat Montresor with respect and friendliness.
B. Fortunato's pride drives him to prove he is a better judge of wine than Luchesi.
C. Fortunato's status makes him feel that he is entitled to the Amontillado.
D. Fortunato's pugnacity inspires him to provoke Montresor.
 

The Masque of the Red Death

1. PART A: Which statement best identifies a major theme in the story? Death is more powerful than life or growth. B. Death is unavoidable, regardless of one's wealth or power. C. People must confront their problems rather than try to hide from them. D. Fear is a strong tool that leaders can use to increase their power.
2. PART B: Which of the following quotes best supports the answer to Part A? 
A."The external world could take care of itself. In the mean time it was folly to grieve, or to think."
B. "while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball"
C. "'Who dares?' he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood near him — 'who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery?'"
D. "And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."
3. What does the phrase "untenanted by any tangible form" in suggest about the intruder?
A. The intruder has no physical form and therefore cannot be restrained, which makes it similar to death and disease.
B. The intruder is able to vanish when it is attacked, which implies that it comes from another world, possibly the land of the dead.
C. The phrase conveys the extreme violence with which the revelers handle the intruder, who is seemingly left without a body.
D. The intruder's body consists of disease-ridden vapors, which the Prince and other revelers unwittingly release by attacking it.
 
4. The narrator describes the courtiers as resolving "to leave means neither of ingress or egress". What does this description reveal about the courtiers' attitudes?
A. The courtiers' decision to allow people to leave the abbey but never to re-enter shows that they value collective security over individual freedom.
B. The courtiers believe that the plague will never make it into the abbey, and in their arrogance they leave no options for escape.
C. The courtiers have no desire to ever reconnect with the outside world and wish to build a new society in complete isolation.
D. The courtiers take advantage of the rule that all homes be locked up in times of plague because it gives them an excuse to ignore the people's suffering.
 
5.How does the description of the clock contribute to the development of the story's theme(s)? Cite evidence in your answer.
 

The Pit and the Pendulum

  1. PART A: Which of the following statements best expresses a major theme of the text?      A. There is no greater fear than that of death and nothingness. B. Intolerance based on religious differences can lead to great suffering. C. Fear can give people hope and motivate them to overcome impossible obstacles. D. How people perceive the world around them affects how they act in it.
  2. PART B: Which of the following quotes best supports the answer to Part A?                       A. "I saw clearly the doom which had been prepared for me, and congratulated myself upon the timely accident by which I had escaped." B. "The figures of fiends in aspects of menace, with skeleton forms, and other more really fearful images, overspread and disfigured the walls." C. "With the particles of the oily and spicy viand which now remained, I thoroughly rubbed the bandage wherever I could reach it" D. "oh! horror! — oh! any horror but this! With a shriek, I rushed from the margin, and buried my face in my hands — weeping bitterly."
  3. How does the sentencing at the beginning of the story affect the narrator?                           A. The narrator becomes faint and drifts in and out of consciousness from the shock, not quite sure what is real and what is not. B. The narrator becomes furious and is drugged in order to remove him from the sentencing chamber. C. The narrator becomes faint and starts hallucinating, preferring his own delusions to the awareness of his fate. D. The narrator becomes instantly depressed and does nothing to resist his captors, longing for his death and an end to his misery.
  4. Which of the following best describes how the narrator's point of view impacts the text?      A. The first-person point of view makes the narrator unreliable and less trustworthy, especially since the torments he describes are historically inaccurate. B. The first-person point of view limits the narrative to what the narrator knows and senses, thus heightening the elements of fear and suspense. C. The limited second-person point of view places the reader alongside the narrator in the tale of horror, thus heightening the elements of fear and suspense. D. The limited third-person point of view allows the narrator to describe settings and events at a distance, while also retaining the subjective and emotional memory of his.

     

    “The Raven” & “Annabel Lee” Poetry Visual Project.

    You are to create a physical poster that compares and contrasts the main ideas, themes, imagery, and symbolism of both poems. You MUST use textual evidence that proves the main ideas, themes, imagery, and symbolism of both poems. You MUST have at least 6 textual evidence examples. Your poster MUST include at least 4 pictures. Each picture will represent the main ideas, themes, imagery, and symbolism that are present in the poems.