SAT II Literature : Overall Language or Specific Words, Phrases, or Sentences

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for SAT II Literature

varsity tutors app store varsity tutors android store

Example Questions

Example Question #1 : Summarizing, Paraphrasing, And Describing

1 Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness, 
       Thou foster-child of silence and slow time, 
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express 
       A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme: 
5 What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape 
       Of deities or mortals, or of both, 
               In Tempe or the dales of Arcady? 
       What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? 
9 What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? 
               What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? 
 
11 Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard 
       Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; 
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd, 
       Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: 
15 Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave 
       Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; 
               Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, 
18 Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve; 
       She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, 
               For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! 
 
21 Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed 
         Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu; 
And, happy melodist, unwearied, 
         For ever piping songs for ever new; 
25 More happy love! more happy, happy love! 
         For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd, 
                For ever panting, and for ever young; 
28 All breathing human passion far above, 
         That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd, 
                A burning forehead, and a parching tongue. 
 
31 Who are these coming to the sacrifice? 
         To what green altar, O mysterious priest, 
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies, 
         And all her silken flanks with garlands drest? 
35 What little town by river or sea shore, 
         Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel, 
                Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn? 
38 And, little town, thy streets for evermore 
         Will silent be; and not a soul to tell 
                Why thou art desolate, can e'er return. 
 
41 O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede 
         Of marble men and maidens overwrought, 
With forest branches and the trodden weed; 
         Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought 
45 As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral! 
         When old age shall this generation waste, 
                Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe 
48 Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st, 
         "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all 
                Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
 
(1819)

Which of the following does the poem NOT describe?

Possible Answers:

A lover trying to kiss a woman

Trees

A pagan sacrifice

An empty town

Death and suffering

Correct answer:

Death and suffering

Explanation:

The poet is, specifically, describing and reacting to a Greek urn. Among the scenes on the urn which are described are: trees (line 21), the lover (line 17), an empty town (line 38), and a pagan sacrifice (line 31). Nowhere is there a description of death or suffering.

Passage adapted from John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (1819)

Example Question #8 : Summarizing, Paraphrasing, And Describing

I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.
What hours, O what black hours we have spent 
This night! what sights you, heart, saw; ways you went! 
And more must, in yet longer light's delay. 
With witness I speak this. But where I say 
Hours I mean years, mean life. And my lament 
Is cries countless, cries like dead letters sent 
To dearest him that lives alas! away. 

I am gall, I am heartburn. God's most deep decree 
Bitter would have me taste: my taste was me; 
Bones built in me, flesh filled, blood brimmed the curse. 
Selfyeast of spirit a dull dough sours. I see 
The lost are like this, and their scourge to be 
As I am mine, their sweating selves; but worse.

(1918) 

In the context, what does “Selfyeast of spirit a dull dough sours” mean?

Possible Answers:

Self-reflection can elevate the spirit from the dull yeast bread consumed by commoners to the higher-end sourdough enjoyed by gentry and nobility. 

Self-reflection can, like late-19th century fermentation techniques, preserve the spirit. 

None of these.

Without God, the spirit is like a dough that will not rise. 

The conversion from yeast bread to sourdough is like the conversion from Paganism to Christianity.  

Correct answer:

None of these.

Explanation:

When Hopkins says "sour," he's not talking about delicious sourdough bread: he really means really means something that's been spoiled. All of the options here are either inapplicable, or transform Hopkins meaning to something positive. The overall context of the poem should tell you that Hopkins is more one to lament than celebrate the effects of the "selfyeast." 

Passage adapted from "[I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day]" (1918) by Gerald Manley Hopkins. 

Example Question #221 : Overall Language Or Specific Words, Phrases, Or Sentences

1 The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, 
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; 
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. 
 
5   Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, 
That host with their banners at sunset were seen: 
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, 
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown. 
 
9   For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, 
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; 
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, 
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still! 
 
13   And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, 
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride; 
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, 
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf. 
 
17   And there lay the rider distorted and pale, 
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail: 
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, 
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown. 
 
21   And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, 
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; 
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, 
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
 
(1815)

This poem is primarily describing ________________.

Possible Answers:

a dynasty coming to an end

a stable full of horses

a night sky

the destruction of an army

inclement weather

Correct answer:

the destruction of an army

Explanation:

This poem is primarily describing the destruction of an army. Horses and the night sky are featured images, but they are not the central event or image that the poem communicates. The destruction of this army may also herald the end of a dynasty, but this information is not given in the poem and is certainly not the focus of the poem as a whole.

Passage adapted from Lord Byron's "The Destruction of Sennacherib" (1815)

Example Question #1 : Summarizing, Paraphrasing, And Describing Prose

"Well, then," said he, "this is the berth for me. Here you, matey," he cried to the man who trundled the barrow; "bring up alongside and help up my chest. I'll stay here a bit," he continued. "I'm a plain man; rum and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there for to watch ships off. What you mought call me? You mought call me captain. Oh, I see what you're at—there"; and he threw down three or four gold pieces on the threshold. "You can tell me when I've worked through that," says he, looking as fierce as a commander.

And indeed bad as his clothes were and coarsely as he spoke, he had none of the appearance of a man who sailed before the mast, but seemed like a mate or skipper accustomed to be obeyed or to strike. The man who came with the barrow told us the mail had set him down the morning before at the Royal George, that he had inquired what inns there were along the coast, and hearing ours well spoken of, I suppose, and described as lonely, had chosen it from the others for his place of residence. And that was all we could learn of our guest.

Based on context, what is the “Royal George” (paragraph 2)?

Possible Answers:

A ship

A private stagecoach company

A town

None of these other choices

An inn or tavern

Correct answer:

An inn or tavern

Explanation:

Beyond just the sound of its name, there are several clues to hint that the Royal George is a place where the captain lodged. We see in the same sentence that he arrived “at” this place the previous day, so that preposition eliminates “town.” We also know that the captain is looking for an inn to stay in and that he’s paid in advance for his lodging, so it doesn’t make sense that he’d be arriving at a ship to set sail. We also know that the mail coach and not a private stagecoach delivered him to his destination, so that leaves us with an inn or tavern.

Passage adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, 1883.

Example Question #1 : Summarizing, Paraphrasing, And Describing Prose

1 “In the right coat-pocket of the great man-mountain” (for so I interpret the words quinbus flestrin,) “after the strictest search, we found only one great piece of coarse-cloth, large enough to be a foot-cloth for your majesty’s chief room of state. 2 In the left pocket we saw a huge silver chest, with a cover of the same metal, which we, the searchers, were not able to lift. 3 We desired it should be opened, and one of us stepping into it, found himself up to the mid leg in a sort of dust, some part whereof flying up to our faces set us both a sneezing for several times together… 4 In the large pocket, on the right side of his middle cover” (so I translate the word ranfulo, by which they meant my breeches,) “we saw a hollow pillar of iron, about the length of a man, fastened to a strong piece of timber larger than the pillar; and upon one side of the pillar, were huge pieces of iron sticking out, cut into strange figures, which we know not what to make of. 5 In the smaller pocket on the right side, were several round flat pieces of white and red metal, of different bulk; some of the white, which seemed to be silver, were so large and heavy, that my comrade and I could hardly lift them.”

Based on context, what object is being described in sentences 2 and 3?

Possible Answers:

A saltshaker

An incense holder

A casket

An urn

A snuffbox

Correct answer:

A snuffbox

Explanation:

If we read carefully, we can see that the object consists of a “silver chest” (sentence 2) containing “a sort of dust” (sentence 3) that “set us both a sneezing for several times together” (sentence 3). You might not think of a snuffbox immediately, but it’s the only choice among these answers that fits the description. A snuffbox was a small, often ornamental, container in which gentlemen kept powdered tobacco to sniff.

Passage adapted from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, 1892.

Example Question #2 : Summarizing, Paraphrasing, And Describing Prose

1 “In the right coat-pocket of the great man-mountain” (for so I interpret the words quinbus flestrin,) “after the strictest search, we found only one great piece of coarse-cloth, large enough to be a foot-cloth for your majesty’s chief room of state. 2 In the left pocket we saw a huge silver chest, with a cover of the same metal, which we, the searchers, were not able to lift. 3 We desired it should be opened, and one of us stepping into it, found himself up to the mid leg in a sort of dust, some part whereof flying up to our faces set us both a sneezing for several times together… 4 In the large pocket, on the right side of his middle cover” (so I translate the word ranfulo, by which they meant my breeches,) “we saw a hollow pillar of iron, about the length of a man, fastened to a strong piece of timber larger than the pillar; and upon one side of the pillar, were huge pieces of iron sticking out, cut into strange figures, which we know not what to make of. 5 In the smaller pocket on the right side, were several round flat pieces of white and red metal, of different bulk; some of the white, which seemed to be silver, were so large and heavy, that my comrade and I could hardly lift them.”

Based on context, what object is being described in sentence 4?

Possible Answers:

A comb

A barrel organ

A whistle

A compass

A key

Correct answer:

A key

Explanation:

Based on sentence 4, we can see that the object consists of “a hollow pillar of iron” that is “fastened to a strong piece of timber larger than the pillar” and that has, on one side, “huge pieces of iron sticking out, cut into strange figures.” The hollowness of the object and its attachment to the piece of wood may throw you off, but consider an old-fashioned door key with a wooden keychain.

Passage adapted from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, 1892.

Example Question #1 : Summarizing, Paraphrasing, And Describing Prose

1 “In the right coat-pocket of the great man-mountain” (for so I interpret the words quinbus flestrin,) “after the strictest search, we found only one great piece of coarse-cloth, large enough to be a foot-cloth for your majesty’s chief room of state. 2 In the left pocket we saw a huge silver chest, with a cover of the same metal, which we, the searchers, were not able to lift. 3 We desired it should be opened, and one of us stepping into it, found himself up to the mid leg in a sort of dust, some part whereof flying up to our faces set us both a sneezing for several times together… 4 In the large pocket, on the right side of his middle cover” (so I translate the word ranfulo, by which they meant my breeches,) “we saw a hollow pillar of iron, about the length of a man, fastened to a strong piece of timber larger than the pillar; and upon one side of the pillar, were huge pieces of iron sticking out, cut into strange figures, which we know not what to make of. 5 In the smaller pocket on the right side, were several round flat pieces of white and red metal, of different bulk; some of the white, which seemed to be silver, were so large and heavy, that my comrade and I could hardly lift them.”

Based on context, what object is being described in sentence 5?

Possible Answers:

Hubcaps

Coins

Buttons

Scrap metal

Plates

Correct answer:

Coins

Explanation:

We know that the objects are found in the giant’s pockets, so we can immediately eliminate plates and hubcaps. We know also that the objects consist of “several round flat pieces of white and red metal, of different bulk” and that some “seemed to be silver.” The only sensible guess for these metal discs is coins.

Passage adapted from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, 1892.

Example Question #221 : Overall Language Or Specific Words, Phrases, Or Sentences

Adapted from Frankenstein by Mary Shelly (1818)

Shutting the door, [the monster] approached me and said in a smothered voice, "You have destroyed the work which you began; what is it that you intend? Do you dare to break your promise? I have endured toil and misery; I left Switzerland with you; I crept along the shores of the Rhine, among its willow islands and over the summits of its hills. I have dwelt many months in the heaths of England and among the deserts of Scotland. I have endured incalculable fatigue, and cold, and hunger; do you dare destroy my hopes?"

"Begone! I do break my promise; never will I create another like yourself, equal in deformity and wickedness."

"Slave, I before reasoned with you, but you have proved yourself unworthy of my condescension. Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable, but I can make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you. You are my creator, but I am your master; obey!"

"The hour of my irresolution is past, and the period of your power is arrived. Your threats cannot move me to do an act of wickedness, but they confirm me in a determination of not creating you a companion in vice. Shall I, in cool blood, set loose upon the earth a daemon whose delight is in death and wretchedness? Begone! I am firm, and your words will only exasperate my rage."

The monster saw my determination in my face and gnashed his teeth in the impotence of anger. "Shall each man," cried he, "find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone? I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn. Man! You may hate, but beware! Your hours will pass in dread and misery, and soon the bolt will fall which must ravish from you your happiness forever. Are you to be happy while I grovel in the intensity of my wretchedness? You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains—revenge, henceforth dearer than light or food! I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery. Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful. I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom. Man, you shall repent of the injuries you inflict."

"Devil, cease; and do not poison the air with these sounds of malice. I have declared my resolution to you, and I am no coward to bend beneath words. Leave me; I am inexorable."

"It is well. I go; but remember, I shall be with you on your wedding night."

I started forward and exclaimed, "Villain! Before you sign my death-warrant, be sure that you are yourself safe."

I would have seized him, but he eluded me and quit the house with precipitation. In a few moments I saw him in his boat, which shot across the waters with an arrowy swiftness and was soon lost amidst the waves.

All was again silent, but his words rang in my ears. I burned with rage to pursue the murderer of my peace and precipitate him into the ocean. I walked up and down my room hastily and perturbed, while my imagination conjured up a thousand images to torment and sting me. Why had I not followed him and closed with him in mortal strife? But I had suffered him to depart, and he had directed his course towards the mainland. I shuddered to think who might be the next victim sacrificed to his insatiate revenge. And then I thought again of his words—"I WILL BE WITH YOU ON YOUR WEDDING NIGHT." That, then, was the period fixed for the fulfillment of my destiny. In that hour I should die and at once satisfy and extinguish his malice. The prospect did not move me to fear; yet when I thought of my beloved Elizabeth, of her tears and endless sorrow, when she should find her lover so barbarously snatched from her, tears, the first I had shed for many months, streamed from my eyes, and I resolved not to fall before my enemy without a bitter struggle.

Which of the following might the monster have said to summarize the remarks made in the underlined paragraph?

Possible Answers:

You thought you were quite intelligent, but I have now finally managed to outwit you.

I may owe you a debt, but you will someday see that I am independent.

You will not see the light of day, pitiful fool.

Your control over me is ended.

My power is at a new height, and you are the source of that strength.

Correct answer:

Your control over me is ended.

Explanation:

This whole paragraph hinges on the ironic circumstances of the role reversal between Dr. Frankenstein and the monster. The scientist created the monster, but after the passage of time, the latter has become independent and able to exact revenge upon his creator. Thus, the best option is the one that states that it is the monster who is now in control.

Example Question #24 : Interpreting The Passage

Adapted from "The Convalescent" in Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb (1823)

To be sick is to enjoy monarchal prerogatives. Compare the silent tread, and quiet ministry, almost by the eye only, with which he is served—with the careless demeanor, the unceremonious goings in and out (slapping of doors, or leaving them open) of the very same attendants, when he is getting a little better—and you will confess, that from the bed of sickness (throne let me rather call it) to the elbow chair of convalescence, is a fall from dignity, amounting to a deposition.

How convalescence shrinks a man back to his pristine stature! Where is now the space, which he occupied so lately, in his own, in the family's eye? The scene of his regalities, his sick room, which was his presence chamber, where he lay and acted his despotic fancies—how is it reduced to a common bedroom! The trimness of the very bed has something petty and unmeaning about it. It is made every day. How unlike to that wavy, many-furrowed, oceanic surface, which it presented so short a time since, when to make it was a service not to be thought of at oftener than three or four day revolutions, when the patient was with pain and grief to be lifted for a little while out of it, to submit to the encroachments of unwelcome neatness, and decencies which his shaken frame deprecated; then to be lifted into it again, for another three or four days' respite, to flounder it out of shape again, while every fresh furrow was a historical record of some shifting posture, some uneasy turning, some seeking for a little ease; and the shrunken skin scarce told a truer story than the crumpled coverlid

Hushed are those mysterious sighs—those groans—so much more awful, while we knew not from what caverns of vast hidden suffering they proceeded. The Lernean pangs are quenched. The riddle of sickness is solved; and Philoctetes is become an ordinary personage.

Perhaps some relic of the sick man's dream of greatness survives in the still lingering visitations of the medical attendant. But how is he too changed with everything else! Can this be he--this man of news—of chat—of anecdote—of everything but physic—can this be he, who so lately came between the patient and his cruel enemy, as on some solemn embassy from Nature, erecting herself into a high mediating party? Pshaw! 'Tis some old woman.

Farewell with him all that made sickness pompous—the spell that hushed the household—the desert-like stillness, felt throughout its inmost chambers—the mute attendance—the inquiry by looks—the still softer delicacies of self-attention—the sole and single eye of distemper alonely fixed upon itself—world-thoughts excluded—the man a world unto himself—his own theatre—What a speck is he dwindled into!

The overall point of this passage is to discuss which of the following?

Possible Answers:

Convalescence is worse than illness because people cease giving respect

Convalescence shrinks the sick man's self-absorption

Doctors only give real care and respect to patients who are acutely ill

Under the deliriousness of illness, the sick man believes he is a king

Sickness is actually quite enjoyable because one is treated like a king

Correct answer:

Convalescence shrinks the sick man's self-absorption

Explanation:

Lamb draws a comparison between the sick man and a king. They both are given royal attention. Convalescence (recovery) is like a deposition—the self-absorption and close attention from others vanishes.

Example Question #7 : Summarizing, Paraphrasing, And Describing Prose

The fundamental source of all your errors, sophisms, and false reasonings, is a total ignorance of the natural rights of mankind. Were you once to become acquainted with these, you could never entertain a thought, that all men are not, by nature, entitled to a parity of privileges. You would be convinced that natural liberty is a gift of the beneficent Creator to the whole human race, and that civil liberty is founded in that, and cannot be wrested from any people without the most manifest violation of justice. Civil liberty is only natural liberty, modified and secured by the sanctions of civil society. It is not a thing, in its own nature, precarious and dependent on human will and caprice, but it is conformable to the constitution of man, as well as necessary to the well-being of society.

....

Thus Sir, I have taken a pretty general survey of the American Charters; and proved to the satisfaction of every unbiassed person, that they are intirely, discordant with that sovereignty of parliament, for which you are an advocate. The disingenuity of your extracts (to give it no harsher name) merits the severest censure; and will no doubt serve to discredit all your former, as well as future labours, in your favourite cause of despotism.

It is true, that New-York has no Charter. But, if it could support it’s claim to liberty in no other way, it might, with justice, plead the common principles of colonization: for, it would be unreasonable, to seclude one colony, from the enjoyment of the most important privileges of the rest. There is no need, however, of this plea: The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.

 

(1775)

The author claims it does not matter that "New York has no Charter" because _________________.

Possible Answers:

the Charters were all written a long time ago

the Charters are illegitimate

rights should be determined by the people

the Charters are not usually respected anyway

official documents are not the standard of right and wrong

Correct answer:

official documents are not the standard of right and wrong

Explanation:

The entire third paragraph is devoted to explaining why it does not matter that New York has no Charter--that is, why New York should have the rights normally secured by a colonial Charter even though it has no such official document.

Ultimately, here, the author states: "The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun beam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power." That is to say, the right and wrong way for a government to treat its people, the rights that a people ought to have, do not come from and are not determined by "old parchments, or musty records"--documents like Charters. Rather, the author claims, the rights people ought to have are something determined by nature--by the kind of thing human beings are and the kind of thing government is.

Passage adapted from Alexander Hamilton's The Farmer Refuted (1775).

Learning Tools by Varsity Tutors