SAT II Literature : SAT Subject Test in Literature
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for SAT II Literature
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Example Questions
Example Question #11 : Form, Structure, Grammar, And Syntax
What is the direct object of the verb "find" in line 10?
"fate" (line 9)
"I" (line 10)
"things" (line 11)
"beauty" (line 12)
the Rose (implied)
"beauty" (line 12)
The direct object of a verb is the thing which receives the action of that verb. For instance, in the sentence, "The cat ate the fish," the "fish" is the direct object of the verb "ate" because the fish is the thing being eaten.
In the case of the verb "find" in line 10 of this poem, the thing being found is the "beauty" in line 12. "Beauty" is therefore the direct object of this verb.
Passage adapted from "To the Rose Upon the Rood of Time" by William Butler Yeats (1893)
Example Question #12 : Grammar And Syntax: Poetry
"Ruin" (line 5) functions syntactically as _____________.
the subject of an implied verb
a noun in apposition to "Fergus" (line 5)
the direct object of "cast" (line 5)
the subject of "cast" (line 5)
a noun in apposition to "Druid" (line 4)
the direct object of "cast" (line 5)
The direct object of a verb is the thing which receives the action of that verb. For instance, in the sentence, "The cat ate the fish," the "fish" is the direct object of the verb "ate" because the fish is the thing being eaten.
"Ruin untold," along with "dreams," is one of the things that is "cast round Fergus" in line 5. Because "ruin" is one of the things being cast, it functions as the direct object of the verb "cast" in that line.
Passage adapted from "To the Rose Upon the Rood of Time" by William Butler Yeats (1893)
Example Question #13 : Grammar And Syntax: Poetry
1 I WILL arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, 2 And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: 3 Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee, 4 And live alone in the bee-loud glade. 5 And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, 6 Dropping from the veils of the mourning to where the cricket sings; 7 There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, 8 And evening full of the linnet's wings. 9 I will arise and go now, for always night and day 10 I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; 11 While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey, 12 I hear it in the deep heart's core.
(1893)
What is the grammatical function of "dropping" (line 5)?
Dangling participle
Adjectival modifier of "slow" (line 5)
Adverbial modifier of "peace" (line 5)
Adjectival modifier of "peace" (line 5)
Adverbial modifier of "slow" (line 5)
Adverbial modifier of "slow" (line 5)
An adverbial modifier can be an adverb modifying (that is, describing) a verb, or it can also be an adverb modifying an adjective. Thus, "quickly" in "run quickly" and "very" in "very fast" are both adverbs. An adverb can even be a modifier for another adverb; such is the case with "very" in the phrase "very quickly."
An adjective (adjectival modifier), however, always modifies a noun.
In the case of "dropping" in line 5, it is clear from syntax and context that "dropping" must be modifying "slow." Because "slow" is itself an adjective, and adjectives are modified by adverbs (not more adjectives), the word modifying it must be an adverbial modifier.
Passage adapted from William Butler Yeats' "Lake Isle of Innisfree" (1893)
Example Question #14 : Grammar And Syntax: Poetry
1 MUCH have I travell’d in the realms of gold,
2 And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
3 Round many western islands have I been
4 Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
5 Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
6 That deep-brow’d Homer ruled as his demesne;
7 Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
8 Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
9 Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
10 When a new planet swims into his ken;
11 Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
12 He star’d at the Pacific—and all his men
13 Look’d at each other with a wild surmise—
14 Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
(1816)
What is the subject of the verb "seen" (line 2)?
"states and kingdoms" (line 2)
"states" (line 2)
"realms" (line 1)
"I" (line 1)
The addressee (implied)
"I" (line 1)
The subject of a verb is the thing that performs the action of the verb. For instance, in the sentence, "The dog barks," the "dog" is the subject of the verb "barks" because the dog is the thing doing the barking.
In the case of the verb "seen" in line 2, the thing doing the seeing is the speaker, who refers to himself as "I" in line 1. "I" is therefore the subject of the verb "seen."
Passage adapted from "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" by John Keats (1816)
Example Question #15 : Grammar And Syntax: Poetry
1 MUCH have I travell’d in the realms of gold,
2 And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
3 Round many western islands have I been
4 Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
5 Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
6 That deep-brow’d Homer ruled as his demesne;
7 Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
8 Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
9 Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
10 When a new planet swims into his ken;
11 Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
12 He star’d at the Pacific—and all his men
13 Look’d at each other with a wild surmise—
14 Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
(1816)
Which of the following is the object of a preposition?
"silent" (line 14)
"Chapman" (line 8)
"islands" (line 3)
"planet" (line 10)
"hold" (line 4)
"islands" (line 3)
A preposition is a word such as "on," "in," "at," "near," "toward," "beside," etc., which expresses the a relationship (often but not always spatial in nature) between a noun and something else in the sentence. The object of a preposition is the noun which the preposition governs. Often this noun comes after the preposition. For instance, in the phrase "beside the house," the preposition is "beside" and the object of the preposition is the "house."
In line 3, "islands" is the object of the preposition "round." (Round means the same thing as the more modern English word "around.") None of the other answers are the object of a preposition.
Passage adapted from "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" by John Keats (1816)
Example Question #16 : Grammar And Syntax: Poetry
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
(1794)
The "he" in the bolded and underlined line refers to _______________.
The Tyger
The Lamb
God
A metalworker
William Blake
God
Given that the following line reads, "What the hand dare seize the fire?" This line reflects a God who has the power to create the Tyger, as the speaker wonders at his motivations for doing so.
Passage adapted from William Blake's "The Tyger" (1794)
Example Question #21 : Grammar And Syntax
What is the antecedent of the pronoun "That" in line 29?
"happy love" (line 25)
"a parching tongue" (line 30)
"A burning forehead" (line 30)
the beauty of the artwork being described (implied)
"All breathing human passion" (line 28)
"All breathing human passion" (line 28)
The antecedent of a pronoun is the noun to which the pronoun refers. For example, in the sentence, "I found the book that I was looking for," the pronoun "that" refers back to the noun "book." Therefore "book" is the antecedent of the pronoun "that" in this sentence.
In Line 29 of the poem, "That" is referring back to "All breathing human passion" in the previous line.
Passage adapted from John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (1819)
Example Question #21 : Grammar And Syntax
- One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
- But came the waves and washed it away:
- Again I wrote it with a second hand,
- But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
- Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay
- A mortal thing so to immortalize,
- For I myself shall like to this decay,
- And eek my name be wiped out likewise.
- Not so (quoth I), let baser things devise
- To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
- My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,
- And in the heavens write your glorious name.
- Where whenas Death shall all the world subdue,
- Our love shall live, and later life renew.
The adjective “rare” (line 11 ) modifies which noun?
verse
you
fame
virtues
eternize
virtues
"Rare" (that is, unusual and precious) modifies the noun "virtues".
In modern English, we usually put the subject first, then the verb, then the object:
"My verse shall eternize your virtues rare."
In addition, we almost always put the adjective in front of the noun that it modifies:
My verse shall eternize your rare virtues."
The archaic syntax of this poem may mislead us into interpreting "rare" as an adverb modifying "eternize" (as in, "My verse shall rarely eternize your virtues.")
Passage adapted from Edmund Spenser's "Sonnet 75" (1594)
Example Question #771 : Sat Subject Test In Literature
1. Better to see your cheek grown hollow,
2. Better to see your temple worn,
3. Than to forget to follow, follow,
4. After the sound of a silver horn.
5. Better to bind your brow with willow
6. And follow, follow until you die,
7. Than to sleep with your head on a golden pillow,
8. Nor lift it up when the hunt goes by.
9. Better to see your cheek grow sallow
10. And your hair grown gray, so soon, so soon,
11. Than to forget to hallo, hallo,
12. After the milk-white hounds of the moon.
The poem’s point of view is best characterized as _________________.
First and second person combined
Third person limited only
Third person omniscient only
Second person only
Second and third person combined
Second person only
The poem is written entirely in the second person (“Better to see YOUR cheek grown hollow…”.) There are no occurrences of first person (“I . . . “) or of third person (“he/she/it . . .”).
Passage adapted from Eleanor Wylie's "A Madman's Song" (1921)
Example Question #22 : Form, Structure, Grammar, And Syntax
Dear Sir,
You are pleased to call again, and with some earnestness, for my thoughts on the late proceedings in France. I will not give you reason to imagine, that I think my sentiments of such value as to wish myself to be solicited about them. They are of too little consequence to be very anxiously either communicated or withheld. It was from attention to you, and to you only, that I hesitated at the time, when you first desired to receive them. In the first letter I had the honour to write you, and which at length I send, I wrote neither for nor from any description of men; nor shall I in this. My errors, if any, are my own. My reputation alone is to answer for them.
You see, Sir, by the long letter I have transmitted to you, that, though I do most heartily wish that France may be animated by a spirit of rational liberty, and that I think you bound, in all honest policy, to provide a permanent body, in which that spirit may reside, and an effectual organ, by which it may act, it is my misfortune to entertain great doubts concerning several material points in your late transactions.
(1790)
The second paragraph ("You see, Sir, by the long letter...") is comprised of one sentence. What is the main verb of this sentence?
"have transmitted"
"entertain"
"reside"
"see"
"wish"
"see"
The main verb of any given sentence is the verb of the sentence's main clause. "See" in "You see..." at the beginning of this sentence is the main verb because it, unlike all other verbs in this sentence, is part of the main clause. All other verbs in this sentence appear in subordinate clauses.
Passage adapted from Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790).
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