AP English Literature and Composition Unit 5: Figurative Language and Imagery Practice Exam

1. [Skill: 2A | Topic: 5.1] Read the following excerpt: In the predawn kitchen, the kettle began its thin, impatient whistle, and the windowpane sweated a cold film beneath my palm. The floorboards sighed as I crossed them, and the air tasted faintly of pennies and burnt toast. Outside, the streetlamp threw a pale bruise of light across the snow. Which of the following best explains how the imagery in the excerpt contributes to the mood?

2. [Skill: 2A | Topic: 5.1] Read the following excerpt: He spoke as if each word had been stored on ice. His handshake was a quick clamp, already withdrawing, and his smile, bright as glass, did not warm the room. Even the coffee between us cooled untouched, a dark circle stiffening at the lip of the mug. Which pattern of imagery is most prominent in the excerpt, and what is its primary effect?

3. [Skill: 3A | Topic: 5.1] Read the following excerpt: When she arrived, her coat seemed to drag the hallway’s shadows behind her, and she kept to the corners where the lamps failed. But as the weeks passed, she moved closer to the windows, letting morning spill across her knuckles, until one day she laughed—startling, bright— as if a curtain had been lifted from the room. Which of the following interpretations best accounts for the excerpt’s pattern of light and darkness imagery?

4. [Skill: 2A | Topic: 5.1] Read the following excerpt: Inside, the kitchen hummed: onions softened in butter, a radio murmured, and bread rose like a slow promise in its bowl. Outside the back door, the wind worried the fence, flinging grit against the siding in sudden, angry bursts. She stood between the sink and the window, hands wet, listening to both worlds at once. How does the contrast in sensory imagery most directly contribute to the passage’s meaning?

5. [Skill: 2A | Topic: 5.1] Read the following excerpt: The violin’s note was a ribbon of smoke, coiling through the rafters and settling on our tongues. When it broke, the silence tasted of tin, and the audience sat very still, as if breathing might crack it. Which of the following best describes the function of the figurative sensory language in the excerpt?

6. [Skill: 1A | Topic: 5.1] Read the following excerpt: By noon the meeting room had become airless. The carpet held yesterday’s heat, and the blinds pressed thin stripes of light across the table like bands. He loosened his collar twice, then stopped, as if even that small motion would spend what breath he had. Which detail from the excerpt most clearly appeals to the sense of touch?

7. [Skill: 2A | Topic: 5.1] Read the following excerpt: At first the lake was a sheet of hammered silver, so calm that the oars seemed rude for entering it. Later, wind stitched dark wrinkles across the surface, and the reeds began to hiss like warned animals. By dusk, the water swallowed the last clean reflection, holding only a bruised, shifting sky. Which of the following best describes how the shift in imagery affects the tone of the passage?

8. [Skill: 1A | Topic: 5.2] Read the excerpt below: “Each morning I sweep my ribs like a porch, set my thoughts in their rooms, and bolt the old grief in the cellar so it will not wander upstairs.” Which of the following best identifies the figurative device most central to the excerpt?

9. [Skill: 2A | Topic: 5.2] Read the excerpt below: “Each morning I sweep my ribs like a porch, set my thoughts in their rooms, and bolt the old grief in the cellar so it will not wander upstairs.” How does the extended comparison primarily contribute to the excerpt’s tone?

10. [Skill: 1A | Topic: 5.2] Read the excerpt below: “Time is a pickpocket. It slips its hand into the purse of the afternoon and steals the shine from coins I meant to spend tomorrow.” The excerpt most clearly uses which of the following devices?

11. [Skill: 2A | Topic: 5.2] Read the excerpt below: “Time is a pickpocket. It slips its hand into the purse of the afternoon and steals the shine from coins I meant to spend tomorrow.” Which interpretation best explains how the comparison shapes the reader’s understanding of the speaker’s experience?

12. [Skill: 3A | Topic: 5.2] Read the excerpt below: “My sister’s laugh is a bright knife— not cruel, but quick. It cuts the fog from a room and leaves the air suddenly honest.” Which of the following best explains the complex relationship created by the metaphor “a bright knife”?

13. [Skill: 2B | Topic: 5.2] Read the excerpt below: “In the museum of our marriage, the labels never change. Here: the first apology, preserved under glass. There: the small kindnesses, pinned like insects, still beautiful, still unable to move.” How do the speaker’s comparisons most strongly shape the mood of the excerpt?

14. 1. [Skill: 1.C | Topic: 5.3] Read the following excerpt (lines 1–4): 1 The bees in the bean-field bend and blur, 2 a bright, brief buzz beneath the sun; 3 the breeze brings back that bitter myrrh 4 of summer’s end, though summer’s not yet done. Which of the following sound devices is most prominent in lines 1–2, and what is its primary effect?

15. 2. [Skill: 2.B | Topic: 5.3] Read the following excerpt (lines 1–6): 1 I walked the road that words had overgrown, 2 and listened—half in hope, half held in doubt— 3 until the stones, still warm, began to moan 4 beneath my heel, then suddenly cried out. 5 I stopped. The silence shuddered into shape. 6 It was my name the dark had learned to say. The dash in line 2 (“listened—half in hope, half held in doubt—”) most directly functions to

16. 4. [Skill: 3.A | Topic: 5.3] Read the following excerpt (lines 1–7): 1 I meant to leave the house before the rain 2 could make a mirror of the neighborhood, 3 but at the threshold I remembered when 4 you said the future would be understood 5 the way a book is: by turning each page 6 without rereading. So I stepped back in 7 and watched the street continue, line by line. The enjambment from line 4 to line 5 (“understood / the way a book is”) most contributes to the meaning of the passage by

17. 5. [Skill: 2.B | Topic: 5.3] Read the following excerpt (lines 1–6): 1 Soft steps stitch the hallway’s hush, 2 and lampshades sip their steady gold; 3 the clock-face sweats a stainless shush 4 as seconds slip and will not hold. 5 I say your name; it sounds like steam— 6 a thin, hissed thing that cannot stay. In lines 1–4, the repeated s sounds ("Soft," "steps," "stitch," "hush," "sip," "steady," "sweats," "stainless," "shush," "seconds," "slip") most strongly contribute to a tone of

18. 6. [Skill: 4.A | Topic: 5.3] Read the following excerpt (lines 1–5): 1 I kept my father’s jacket on the chair, 2 because the room felt larger when it was 3 not empty. 4 The sleeves hung like unanswered questions. 5 I learned to live inside that “almost” air. How does the line break between lines 2 and 3 (“when it was / not empty.”) most likely shape the reader’s understanding of the speaker’s experience?

19. 1. [Skill: 2.A | Topic: 5.4] Read the excerpt below from a short story. > After the landlord raised the rent again, Mara thanked him in a voice so carefully polite it sounded rehearsed. “How generous,” she said, folding the notice as if it were a holiday card. “Some people never know when to stop giving.” Which of the following best explains how the figurative device in Mara’s remark contributes to the passage?

20. 2. [Skill: 1.A | Topic: 5.4] Read the excerpt below from a novel. > The committee spent months drafting the city’s “Emergency Preparedness Plan.” On the day the sirens first sounded, the binder sat locked in a glass case in the lobby—safe from smoke, water, and anyone who might need it. The irony in the passage is best described as

21. 3. [Skill: 2.A | Topic: 5.4] Read the excerpt below from a poem. > I learned to swallow sentences whole, > to keep the room untroubled. > Yet now I know: > to keep my peace, I must speak. How does the paradox in the final line primarily function in the excerpt?

22. 4. [Skill: 1.A | Topic: 5.4] Read the excerpt below from a memoir. > When the verdict was announced, the courtroom fell into a deafening silence. Even the fans overhead seemed to hesitate, as if noise itself had been ruled out of order. The phrase “deafening silence” is best described as an example of

23. 5. [Skill: 2.A | Topic: 5.4] Read the excerpt below from a letter in a historical novel. > Mother, > Don’t worry about me. The march was long, and the rain had opinions about our uniforms, but I came away with only a few scratches—nothing worth mentioning, really. Based on the context, the speaker’s understatement (“only a few scratches”) most likely functions to

24. 6. [Skill: 2.A | Topic: 5.4] Read the excerpt below from a coming-of-age novel. > By the time she finished explaining what I had done wrong, the sun had burned through three lifetimes, the ocean had evaporated, and my name had been erased from every dictionary. I nodded, properly crushed. How does the hyperbole in the excerpt primarily contribute to meaning?

25. [Skill: 4.A | Topic: 5.3] The following excerpt is from a poem. Snow sifts—soft, so soft—along the sill, and hushes streets in sheets of pale delight; I hold my breath; the city, brittle, still lets every footfall crack the frozen night. Yet under ice the river runs, and runs, a dark insistence tugging at the dawn— Which of the following best explains how the poet’s sound devices and line structure contribute to the meaning of the excerpt?