AP English Literature and Composition Unit 1: Character and Characterization Practice Exam

1. 1. [Skill: 1.A | Topic: 1.1] Read the following excerpt from a fictional novel. > "Mr. Dalloway was, by temperament, a cautious man—so cautious that even his compliments arrived wrapped in conditions. He praised the new clerk’s speed, but only after noting how speed could become carelessness. When the others laughed at the clerk’s joke, Mr. Dalloway smiled too, though his eyes moved immediately to the office door, as if measuring the distance to escape." Which choice best identifies an example of *direct characterization* in the excerpt?

2. 2. [Skill: 1.B | Topic: 1.1] Read the following excerpt from a fictional short story. > The captain ran a thumb along the frayed edge of the flag before he spoke. “We’ll go at dawn,” he said, and the crew shifted uneasily. When the youngest sailor offered a plan to turn back, the captain nodded as if considering it carefully, then placed the sailor’s hand on the flagpole and tightened the boy’s fingers around it. “Hold this,” he said quietly. “You’ll want something steady when the water starts arguing.” Based on the captain’s words and actions, which interpretation best characterizes the captain?

3. 3. [Skill: 1.B | Topic: 1.1] Read the following paired excerpts from a fictional play. **Act I** > LENA: I don’t sign petitions. It only makes people angry. > > MARA: Sometimes people should be angry. > > LENA (tidying the table): Anger breaks things. **Act III** > (A crowd chants outside. LENA stands at the window with a marker.) > > MARA: You don’t have to do this. > > LENA: I know. (She writes a message on a sheet and tapes it to the glass.) But if I don’t, I’ll spend the rest of my life tidying a table that isn’t mine. Which choice best describes Lena as a character across Acts I and III?

4. 4. [Skill: 1.C | Topic: 1.1] Read the following excerpt from a fictional novel. > In the village, Aunt Sabine called generosity a “practical skill,” like sewing a button or sharpening a blade. She gave coins to beggars with the same expression she wore when she salted the soup: calm, exact, unquestioning. Her brother Tomas did not give coins. He gave speeches—about how charity weakened the poor, about how discipline saved them. Yet when the beggar child coughed, Tomas’s speech faltered; his hand went to his pocket and came back empty, and he stared at the child’s ribs as if they had accused him. Which choice best explains how the author’s characterization of Tomas contributes to a central idea in the excerpt?

5. [Skill: 1.A | Topic: 1.1] Read the excerpt below from a contemporary short story. "Marian had always been, in her brother’s tidy summary, 'the sensible one'—the child who folded her socks into identical squares and apologized when other people bumped into her. Yet on the day the eviction notice came, she laughed once, loudly, as if a joke had finally reached her. Then she smoothed the paper on the table, set a kettle on the stove, and said, 'We’ll sort it out,' with the calm of someone arranging flowers." Which of the following best identifies a direct method of characterization in the excerpt?

6. [Skill: 1.B | Topic: 1.1] Read the two excerpts below, which describe the same character at different points in a novel. Excerpt 1: "When Mr. Hale praised the new bridge, Jonah nodded so vigorously his hat slipped over one eye. 'It’s remarkable,' he said, though he had not walked near the river in years. He wrote the compliment into his notebook, as if facts were safer borrowed than made." Excerpt 2: "A month later, Jonah stood on the bridge in a cold rain, palms on the rail. When Mr. Hale began, 'It’s remarkable—' Jonah interrupted, 'It’s unfinished. The footings will fail by spring unless we reinforce them.' He handed Hale a page of calculations, his handwriting steady." Based on the excerpts, Jonah is best characterized as

7. [Skill: 1.C | Topic: 1.1] Read the excerpt below from a play. MARTA: You didn’t tell them it was my idea. LEO: It wasn’t your idea. MARTA: I stayed up all night making the list. LEO: You stayed up all night making the list you wanted people to see. MARTA: That’s not fair. LEO: Fair doesn’t matter. Winning does. Which of the following best describes how the playwright uses indirect characterization to reveal Leo’s values?

8. [Skill: 1.B | Topic: 1.1] Read the excerpt below from a first-person novel. "I told myself I hated surprises, that I was a person of plans. That is what I said aloud, too, in the bright voice that makes people stop asking questions. But when the train lurched past my station and kept going, I did not pull the cord. I watched the city thin into fields and thought, with a steadiness that startled me, This is what I wanted." Which choice best explains how the narrator’s characterization is developed in the passage?

9. **1.** [Skill: 2A | Topic: 1.2] Read the excerpt. > At the meeting, Maren laughed first—too loudly—at the chair’s joke, then pressed her nails into her palm beneath the table. When the motion passed, she rose to congratulate the speaker, saying, “It was the only sensible choice,” though her eyes stayed on the exit. Later, alone in the corridor, she whispered, “I shouldn’t have let it happen,” and smoothed her skirt as if she could iron out the moment. Which of the following interpretations best accounts for how the author develops Maren’s character complexity in the passage?

10. **2.** [Skill: 2B | Topic: 1.2] Read the excerpt. > “If you want it done,” Tomas said, stacking the empty cups with careful precision, “you do it cleanly the first time.” > > Lina stepped over the spilled sugar without looking down. “Or you do it quickly,” she said, already halfway to the door. “The world won’t wait for your tidy hands.” > > Tomas paused, staring at the granules on the floor as if they were an accusation. “Quick is how mistakes get born,” he muttered. In the excerpt, Lina most clearly functions as which of the following in relation to Tomas?

11. **3.** [Skill: 3A | Topic: 1.2] Read the excerpt. > After the guests left, Dev sat beside Aunt Sal on the back steps. He said nothing at first, only traced a crack in the wood with his thumb. > > “You looked like you were carrying a stone in your mouth,” she said. > > Dev let out a breath that sounded like a laugh that had been refused. “If I tell them what I want, they’ll call it selfish. If I don’t, I’ll keep waking up angry at myself.” > > Aunt Sal nodded once. “So say it here, where it can’t hurt you to practice.” The relationship between Dev and Aunt Sal most contributes to characterization by

12. **4.** [Skill: 2A | Topic: 1.2] Read the excerpt. > Mr. Pell arrived every morning at seven, unlocked the register, and repeated, “Rules keep us safe,” to anyone who reached for a pen without asking. When the storm warning blared and customers ran for shelter, he continued counting coins, lips moving with the same phrase, until the lights went out and the shop went dark. Which of the following best explains the most likely function of Mr. Pell’s lack of complexity in the excerpt?

13. **1.** [Skill: 1.B | Topic: 1.3] The following excerpt is from a novel. > When Mother died, Silas began speaking to me as though I were a visitor, not her daughter. At supper he asked after my day with a politeness that required no answer, then turned to the empty chair beside him and said, softly, “She would have wanted the curtains drawn.” > > I laughed—an abrupt sound, like a snapped twig—and reached for the lamp. “The curtains are fine,” I said. But my hand shook, and I kept my eyes on the wick, as if it might accuse me. > > “You always were impatient,” he said. “You want the house to change at your command.” > > “No,” I said, too quickly. “I want it to stop changing.” Which of the following best explains how the interaction between the narrator and Silas reveals the narrator’s motivation?

14. **2.** [Skill: 1.A | Topic: 1.3] Refer to the excerpt in Question 1. Which detail most clearly signals that the central conflict in the passage is fueled by differing approaches to grief?

15. **3.** [Skill: 2.A | Topic: 1.3] The following excerpt is from a short story. > “You didn’t have to come,” Mara said, standing in the doorway with her coat still on. > > “I know,” Elise answered, holding out a covered dish. “But you’ll forget to eat. You always do when you’re angry.” > > Mara’s mouth tightened. “I’m not angry. I’m busy.” > > Elise stepped inside anyway and set the dish on the counter as if she owned the place. “Busy with what? Making lists of everyone who disappointed you?” > > Mara turned toward the sink. “At least lists don’t lie.” How does Elise’s dialogue most strongly contribute to her characterization?

16. **4.** [Skill: 3.A | Topic: 1.3] Refer to the excerpt in Question 3. Which interpretation best explains how the exchange between Mara and Elise reveals Mara’s motivation?

17. [Skill: 1.B | Topic: 1.4] Read the excerpt carefully: "Until that afternoon, Clara had worn her generosity like a brooch—bright, showy, and always arranged to catch the light. When Mrs. Dalloway’s daughter appeared at the door with a basket of bruised pears, Clara laughed too loudly and pressed coins into the girl’s palm, as if the sound of money could drown the quiet embarrassment in the child’s eyes. Later, alone, Clara found the pear basket on the kitchen table beside her father’s old account book. A thin slip of paper lay there, newly tucked beneath the cover: a list of names in her own handwriting, each followed by a sum and a single word—Paid. She stared at the page until the room seemed to shrink around it. It was not charity, she understood then, but accounting; not kindness, but a performance timed to applause. The bruised fruit suddenly felt heavy in her hands, as if it had always been meant for someone else." Which of the following best describes the function of Clara’s realization in the excerpt?

18. [Skill: 1.C | Topic: 1.4] Read the excerpt carefully: "Jonas rehearsed his confession the way he had once rehearsed speeches for the debate team: shoulders back, voice steady, every sentence angled toward victory. He would tell Mira he had signed the petition against her brother’s release—signed it boldly, even, with a flourish meant to look like conviction. At dusk, he climbed the courthouse steps and found Mira waiting. She held a letter, its crease worn soft. Without looking up, she said, ‘They denied him again.’ Her words fell with the flatness of something already finished. Jonas felt his prepared phrases loosen, as though the air had unstitched them. He watched Mira fold the letter, carefully, as if neatness could replace hope. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, and meant only that he was sorry she had come to this place expecting anything. He did not confess. Instead, he walked beside her into the dark, carrying his secret like a lantern he refused to light." Which of the following best identifies the excerpt’s reversal (peripeteia) and its effect on Jonas’s character arc?

19. [Skill: 1.A | Topic: 1.4] Read the excerpt carefully: "When the strike began, the men at the foundry gathered in clumps, arguing in quick, hungry voices. Each day brought a new rumor—of concessions, of police, of hunger. Eli’s friends started speaking in slogans, as if louder words could fill their empty cupboards. Mr. Rudd, the foreman, did not raise his voice once. He arrived each morning at the same hour, hat brushed clean, ledger under his arm, and watched the crowd with the mild patience of a man waiting for weather to pass. ‘Work will resume,’ he said, when asked. ‘It always does.’ Eli hated him for that calm. Yet when Eli’s own certainty began to fray—when his mother’s cough worsened and the rent came due—Mr. Rudd’s steadiness seemed less like confidence and more like refusal: a decision, made long ago, never to recognize anyone’s desperation as real." In context, Mr. Rudd’s largely unchanging demeanor most likely functions to

20. [Skill: 1.B | Topic: 1.4] Read the excerpt carefully: "For years, Marisol had measured her life in receipts. The numbers comforted her: rent paid on the first, groceries under budget, a small surplus folded into an envelope labeled Future. When her brother asked for help, she gave advice instead—work overtime, skip luxuries, make a plan. Then the café closed without warning. The manager’s apology was practiced, almost polite. Marisol walked home with her final paycheck and felt, for the first time, the terror of a sum that refused to balance. That evening, her brother brought over a pot of rice and beans. ‘It’s not much,’ he said, setting it on her stove as if placing it gently might prevent shame. Marisol opened her mouth to refuse—habit lifting the word No like a shield—but the smell of cumin filled the kitchen, and her throat tightened. She took the spoon he offered. The envelope marked Future sat untouched on the counter, suddenly less like protection and more like an accusation." Which interpretation best explains how the change in Marisol’s circumstances contributes to her character development?