LTEN 107: Advice Concerning the Final Exam

Final exam: Monday, June 11 from 11:30-2:29 pm in our classroom.

Final review session:

Closed book exam, please bring your own bluebooks.

IMPORTANT: Read the exam thoroughly before beginning. Plan your exam. Decide how much time you will allot for each question and section and read all instructions. You would be surprised how many students get lower exam grades because they have not read and followed the directions. This guide provides you with the exam format, so that you=ll know what to expect on the test and can prepare accordingly. If you have any questions, please ask immediately: llampert@ucsd.edu

This exam is cumulative. All of our readings are fair game for coverage.

PART I (one hour): Identifications. The instructions will read:

Choose FOUR from FIVE quotations below and, for each item, name the section of the Canterbury Tales from which the quotation is taken, and in a paragraph analyze the passage and discuss its significance in relation to the Prologue/Tale or to the Tales as a whole. Number your answers according to the numbers on this exam sheet and list the numbers on the front of your exam book when you finish. If you answer more than four questions I will score the first four.

The point break down is two points for title; 13 points for commentary for a possible total of 60 points.

I expect that for the Canterbury Tales that you will be able to tell me which selections are from which pilgrim. You should also be able to identify which passages come from the GP. You are not required to tell me whether the selection is from a Prologue or a Tale, although I suspect that superior answers will do this in their interpretive paragraph. Very strong answers would also be able to identify the speaker(s) in the passage. Look at these last two points (telling Prologue from Tale, or identifying speakers) as a way for me to give your answer points. It is possible that an excellent answer that would receive full credit could not mention these, but if you can identify these elements, then please do so.

Here are two actual student answers from a past exam. These received full credit:

1.

But age, allas, that al wole envenyme,

Hath me biraft my beautee and my pith.

Lat go. Farewel! The devel go therwith!

The flour is goon; ther is namoore to telle;

The bren, as I best kan, now moste I selle;

But yet to be right myrie wol I fonde.

This quotation is from the Wife of Bath=s Prologue. She tells the story of her 5 husbands and states that she is ready for a sixth. Here, though, we see that age and time are taking their toll on her, as Athe flour is goon.@ Her prologue was inspired by La Vieille, an old whore from Roman de la Rose, in which the old woman tells about her life and experiences and then gives advice to women on how to outwit men. The Wife of Bath=s Prologue is structured similarly and she emphasizes a woman=s desire for sovereignty. This is a very different approach to the role of women than in the Knight=s Tale, where Emelye is a very passive character, without any rights, not even able to choose who she will marry.

9.

ALo, sires,@ quod the lord, Awith harde grace!

Who evere herde of swich a thyng er now?

To every man ylike? Tel me how.

It is an inpossible; it may nat be.

Ey, nyce cherl, God lete him nevere thee!

The rumblynge of a fart, and every soun,

Nis but of eir reverberacioun,

And evere it wasteth litel and litel away.

Ther is no man kan deemen, by my fey,

If that it were departed equally.

These lines are from the Summoner=s Tale, and discuss the Ainpossible@ that Thomas presents to the Friar. It is significant that the Friar discusses this with the Lord, because they are of different social class. Thus, the Summoner is criticizing the Friar, whose friends are people from the upper class with money instead of the poor whom he is supposed to be serving. Also, since the Friar is puzzled by the Ainpossible,@ he looks like a foor in front of this lord. The ecclesiastical satire the Summoner uses to criticize the Friar is in response to the Friar=s Tale, as there is a rivalry between these two pilgrims. The Summoner=s Tale, however, Aquits@ the Friar=s Tale, because it has more wit and is better spoken.

PART II (one hour to 90 mins.): This is the essay part of the exam. It=s worth 40 points. You will be given a choice of two essay questions. You are to answer ONE. For each question you will be asked to respond using a given number of texts. You are to limit your answer to the number of texts listed, i.e. use only as many texts as requested.

Breadth: Ideally a strong exam will discuss a broad range of texts. If you can, try to organize your choice of ID and essay questions to reflect as wide a range of texts as possible. Rather than trying to throw in gratuitous references to texts, try to make strong connections between the texts you choose. If you can, use texts/themes that you did not write on for the long paper. To facilitate this, plan your exam before you start writing.

What am I looking for in these essay questions? I am looking for well-written, well-organized essays that answer the question as fully as possible in the time allowed. Identification terms are designed to show that you are familiar with the texts we=ve read and the ideas covered in class. Making connections in these questions can help you but it is not essential to a good answer.

Essay exams go a step further. They ask for synthesis--connections between texts, ideas and themes. Does the essay pick up on ideas we=ve discussed and make connections between texts and ideas discussed in class? You certainly don=t have to agree with all the ideas and interpretations I=ve presented in class and, indeed, some of the most important points we=ve dealt with have been proposed as questions in thinksheets, for example, ADo you accept Chaucer=s Retraction.@ People have very different responses to such questions. Your job is to show that you know what=s been covered and discussed in class and that you are able to respond to and synthesize these materials. If you=ve thought about and discussed connections between texts prior to the exam this should help you answer the essay questions. I recommend thinking through the topics below on your own and then with a study partner or partners. I would also recommend looking back over the thinksheets. They touch upon some of the key concepts dealt with in the class. Sharing and discussing notes, thinksheets, essays and ideas with classmates is a good strategy for success.

As you review you should consider esp. the following themes/issues/terms from the course.

I=m not going to give you the exact essay questions in advance, since I hated this as an undergrad., but the questions will deal with the following topics, so you should review using these topics to guide you.

Questions of gender (misogyny, rape, marriage, feminism, courtly love could all come into play here).

Love and Marriage: How different tales deal with marriage, adultery and the roles of love and of mastery/sovereignty in marriage.

Poetic voice; issue of narrator vs. author, creation of character, of narrative voice and narrative persona, the issue of the Retraction, Chaucerian irony.

Estates Satire: questions surrounding issues of class and estate and the practice of Aquiting@ in the Tales. This could include satire surrounding the abuses of friars and other corrupt members of the Church and exchanges like that between the Miller and the Knight.

AOtherness@: We=ve seen how various of the tales represent Adifference,@ especially religious difference, such as in the representations of Jews and Muslims, but also in difference relating to pagan or gender difference as well as to differences in estate, such as that between the Miller and the Knight.