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English 20-1

English 20-1 · Worksheets

Close reading

Ten questions of mixed difficulty, covering Close reading. Print it, or work through it on screen — the answer key starts on its own page.

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Close reading

English 20-1 · maddyhelps.com

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Circle the best answer for each question. Show your work in the space provided.

  1. The best evidence for a claim about a character's state of mind is usually

    1. a) the title of the story
    2. b) a general summary of the plot
    3. c) the reader's own experience
    4. d) a specific detail of what the character does or says

  2. A photograph taken from a low angle looking up at its subject usually makes the subject appear

    1. a) vulnerable or small
    2. b) powerful or imposing
    3. c) closer to the viewer's eye level
    4. d) distant and unimportant

  3. A shift in tone partway through a passage is most reliably identified by

    1. a) the introduction of a new character
    2. b) a change in the kind of words being chosen
    3. c) the appearance of dialogue
    4. d) a change in paragraph length

  4. In a visual text, the focal point is

    1. a) the element the eye is drawn to first
    2. b) the frame around the image
    3. c) the caption beneath the image
    4. d) the photographer's name

  5. A passage describing a house as cramped, dim and airless rather than small, shaded and still mainly establishes

    1. a) a formal register
    2. b) a negative tone through connotation
    3. c) the setting's exact dimensions
    4. d) the narrator's reliability

  6. Tone is

    1. a) the main idea of a text
    2. b) the writer's or speaker's attitude towards the subject
    3. c) the setting of a text
    4. d) the feeling created in the reader

  7. In an editorial cartoon, exaggerating one feature of a public figure most often functions to

    1. a) fill the available space
    2. b) identify the artist
    3. c) make the drawing more realistic
    4. d) make a judgement about that person visible at a glance

  8. An inference is

    1. a) a direct quotation from the text
    2. b) a conclusion drawn from evidence in the text plus reasoning
    3. c) a guess that cannot be supported
    4. d) the writer's stated opinion

  9. Diction means

    1. a) the story's main idea
    2. b) a writer's choice of words
    3. c) the way a text is arranged on the page
    4. d) the rhythm of a line

  10. Mood differs from tone in that mood is

    1. a) the writer's attitude
    2. b) the atmosphere the text creates in the reader
    3. c) the sequence of events
    4. d) the writer's word choice

Answer key · Close reading

English 20-1 · maddyhelps.com

  1. d) a specific detail of what the character does or says — Markers reward precise textual support. A summary shows you read it; a quoted gesture or phrase shows you can point to where the meaning lives.
  2. b) powerful or imposing — Camera angle positions the viewer. Looking up puts you below the subject; a high angle looking down does the opposite. It is a convention, so it can also be used ironically.
  3. b) a change in the kind of words being chosen — Follow the diction. When the vocabulary turns from warm to clinical, or expansive to clipped, the attitude has moved — and the sentence where it turns is the one worth quoting.
  4. a) the element the eye is drawn to first — Composition, contrast, lighting and placement are all used to direct attention. Saying where a viewer looks first, and what put them there, is where an analysis of a visual should start.
  5. b) a negative tone through connotation — Both sets of words describe the same house. The first set carries discomfort in its associations, and that judgement is the writer's attitude showing through the description.
  6. b) the writer's or speaker's attitude towards the subject — Tone belongs to the speaker and mood belongs to the reader. The two often match, but a text can take a light tone about a grim subject, and that gap is usually the point.
  7. d) make a judgement about that person visible at a glance — Caricature is argument compressed into a picture. Analysing one means naming the exaggeration and then saying what claim it makes, not just noting that the drawing is distorted.
  8. b) a conclusion drawn from evidence in the text plus reasoning — An inference has two parts: something the text actually gives you, and the reasoning that gets you from it to your conclusion. If you cannot point at the evidence, it is a guess, and a marker cannot give credit for it.
  9. b) a writer's choice of words — Diction is word choice, and it is the most reliable evidence for tone. Naming a word as formal, colloquial, archaic or clinical is more useful than calling the whole passage descriptive.
  10. b) the atmosphere the text creates in the reader — Fog, silence and a failing light create a mood without telling you what the narrator thinks. Confusing the two is the most common terminology error on a reading exam.