ENG4U Final Examination — Cumulative

All four strands · Ontario Curriculum 2007 (Revised)
Counts toward 30% Final Evaluation
Duration: 3 hours  |  Total: /100 marks  |  Coverage: Strands A–D. The exam includes literary-analysis essay, comparative passage analysis, media-text analysis, and grammar/vocabulary in context. Worked answer keys appear in collapsible sections.
K/U
/25
Thinking
/25
Comm.
/25
Applic.
/25
Part A — Knowledge & Understanding [25 marks]
1
[3]B · Reading
Define and give a one-line example of each: (a) verbal irony, (b) dramatic irony, (c) situational irony.
Answer Key

(a) Saying the opposite of what is meant ("Beautiful weather!" in a storm). (b) Audience knows what character does not (audience knows Hamlet hides; Polonius does not). (c) Outcome opposite of expectation ("The Lottery"ّs cheerful village ends in a stoning).

2
[3]B · Drama
Define soliloquy, identify Shakespeare's standard verse meter, and name one of Hamlet's seven soliloquies.
Answer Key

Soliloquy = speech delivered alone on stage, voicing inner thought to the audience. Shakespeare's verse = blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter). Examples: "O, that this too too solid flesh would melt" (1.2); "To be, or not to be" (3.1); "How all occasions do inform against me" (4.4).

3
[3]B · CanLit
Identify each Canadian author and one major work: Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, Thomas King.
Answer Key

Munro — Nobel 2013, master of the long short story (e.g., "Boys and Girls" / Lives of Girls and Women). Atwood — The Handmaid's Tale, Survival, "The City Planners." King — Cherokee/Greek/German; The Truth About Stories, Green Grass, Running Water.

4
[3]C · Writing
Identify the four parts of a PEEL paragraph and the three qualities of a strong analytical thesis.
Answer Key

PEEL: Point (topic sentence), Evidence (quotation), Explain (analysis), Link (back to thesis). Thesis qualities: specific, debatable, supportable.

5
[3]C · Citation
Write the correct MLA-9 in-text citation and a Works Cited entry for: a quotation from page 102 of George Orwell's 1984, published by Secker and Warburg in 1949.
Answer Key

In-text: (Orwell 102). Works Cited: Orwell, George. 1984. Secker and Warburg, 1949.

6
[2]B
In a Shakespearean sonnet, the rhyme scheme is:
Answer Key

B. Three quatrains in alternating rhyme + closing couplet.

7
[2]D · Media
"SIFT" (for source evaluation) stands for:
Answer Key

A. Caulfield's SIFT method.

8
[3]A · Oral
Identify Aristotle's three rhetorical appeals and define each.
Answer Key

Ethos = appeal through credibility/character of speaker. Pathos = appeal to audience emotion. Logos = appeal to logic, reason, evidence.

9
[3]D
Define and give one example each: bandwagon, testimonial, glittering generality.
Answer Key

Bandwagon: appeal to popularity ("Everyone is using this"). Testimonial: endorsement by celebrity/authority. Glittering generality: vague positive language without specifics ("Vote for change").

Part B — Thinking & Investigation [25 marks]
10
[8]B · Comparative Passage Analysis
Passage A: "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, / And sorry I could not travel both / And be one traveller, long I stood / And looked down one as far as I could / To where it bent in the undergrowth." — Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken"
Passage B: "The fog comes / on little cat feet. // It sits looking / over harbor and city / on silent haunches / and then moves on." — Carl Sandburg, "Fog"
Compare and contrast these two short poems. Address: (i) the dominant figure of speech in each, (ii) the speaker's stance toward the natural world, (iii) the function of form (rhyme/meter or free verse). Aim for 8–10 sentences.
Answer Key

Frost: dominant figure = extended metaphor (roads = life choices); speaker stance = retrospective, hesitant ("sorry," "looked … as far as I could"); form = formal stanzas, ABAAB rhyme, iambic-tetrameter pulse — the regularity contrasts with the speaker's inner uncertainty. Sandburg: dominant figure = metaphor + personification (fog as cat); speaker stance = observational, almost meditative; form = free verse, brevity, white space — enacts the fog's transience. Common ground: both find natural figures for psychological/aesthetic states; difference: Frost's natural world is a stage for human dilemma, Sandburg's is the subject itself. Marks: 2 figures, 2 stance, 2 form, 2 synthesis.

11
[8]B · Hamlet Close Reading
"How all occasions do inform against me, / And spur my dull revenge! What is a man, / If his chief good and market of his time / Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. / Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, / Looking before and after, gave us not / That capability and god-like reason / To fust in us unus'd." — Hamlet, 4.4
Analyse this soliloquy. Identify two literary devices, explain Hamlet's central self-criticism, and explain how this soliloquy compares with "To be, or not to be" in Hamlet's psychological development.
Answer Key

Devices: (1) Antithesis ("looking before and after") suggesting human reason should span past and future; (2) Diction of decay ("fust in us unus'd") imaging unused reason as rotting meat. Self-criticism: Hamlet shames himself for inaction, comparing himself to the soldiers who go to die "for an eggshell" while he, with greater cause, has done nothing. Compared with 3.1's contemplative "To be" (which weighs whether to act at all), 4.4 has Hamlet committed to action, lashing himself for delay. The shift dramatises movement from philosophical doubt toward decisive resolve. Marks: 2 devices, 2 self-criticism, 2 comparison, 2 communication.

12
[5]D · Media Analysis
A 30-second video advertisement opens with footage of a melting glacier and the voiceover "The Earth has 12 years left," then cuts to children running in a green park while a charity logo appears with "Join us. Donate today."
Analyse this PSA-style ad. Identify (a) two persuasion techniques, (b) one ethical concern about its construction, (c) the implied audience response.
Answer Key

(a) Pathos (children, glacier, urgency) and emotional juxtaposition (despair → hope). (b) Ethical concerns: oversimplified science ("12 years left" is a metaphorical IPCC heuristic, not a literal deadline); use of children's images for a fundraising frame can be argued as exploitative. (c) Implied response: viewer's grief and parental protectiveness redirected into immediate donation. Marks: 2 techniques, 2 ethics, 1 audience response.

13
[4]C · Argument Construction
Construct a debatable thesis on the question: "In Atwood's 'The City Planners,' is suburban order presented as comforting or as alienating?" Provide your thesis and two pieces of textual evidence (real or invented from the poem's known imagery).
Answer Key

Sample thesis: "Atwood frames suburban order as not merely alienating but symptomatic — the planners' 'sanitary' tidiness is a denial whose precise vocabulary betrays the disorder it claims to suppress." Evidence: (1) the medical/clinical adjectives ("sanitary," "rational") whose connotations imply illness rather than wellness; (2) the prophesied future thaw — eventual cracks in driveways, lawn-paint peeling — that locates collapse already inside the order. Marks: 2 thesis, 2 evidence and analysis.

Part C — Communication [25 marks]
14
[15]B + C · Major Literary-Analysis Essay
Major Task — Write a literary-analysis essay (450–600 words) responding to ONE of the following prompts:

Option 1: "How does Shakespeare use the disease/corruption motif in Hamlet to develop the play's theme of moral rot in the state?"
Option 2: "How does Munro use the imagery of fox-pelts and horse-killings in 'Boys and Girls' to expose the gendered violence beneath rural respectability?"
Option 3: "How does Frost use natural imagery and ambiguous diction in 'The Road Not Taken' to undermine the conventional reading of the poem as a celebration of self-reliant choice?"

Include: introduction with thesis, 3 body paragraphs (each PEEL), conclusion. Embed at least 3 quotations with proper citation.
Marking Rubric

K/U (3): correct understanding of text and devices. Thinking (4): quality and depth of argument; specific evidence selection; counter-reading awareness. Communication (5): clear introduction with thesis, well-organised paragraphs (PEEL), embedded quotations with citation, conclusion that synthesises rather than merely restates, voice/conventions. Application (3): transfer of literary analysis terms; relevance of evidence to claim. Sample first sentences for Option 1: "Shakespeare frames the murder of King Hamlet as a single-act poisoning that becomes the play's master metaphor: where Claudius drips 'leperous distilment' into one ear, the entire kingdom hears the infection spread, and the disease imagery that follows — Hamlet's 'unweeded garden,' his 'ulcerous place' for Gertrude, the 'foul disease' Hamlet sees in 4.4 — turns one murder into a diagnosis of an entire moral order."

15
[5]C · Vocabulary & Grammar in Context
Identify and correct the error in each sentence:
(a) "Each of the students were prepared for the exam."
(b) "The novel which I read last semester it was very engaging."
(c) "Hamlet, who is the protagonist of Shakespeare's play, are conflicted about avenging his father's death."
(d) "Atwood's poem is more better than I expected."
(e) "The students who's essays were submitted on time received feedback."
Answer Key

(a) "Each … was prepared." (Each = singular subject.) (b) "The novel that I read last semester was very engaging." (Remove redundant "it"; "that" preferred for restrictive clauses.) (c) "Hamlet … is conflicted." (Singular subject Hamlet.) (d) "better" — drop "more" (avoid double comparative). (e) "whose essays" (possessive — "who's" = "who is").

16
[5]A · Oral / Written Communication
Write the opening 4–6 sentences of a 5-minute oral presentation arguing for the inclusion of one specific Canadian short story (your choice) on the ENG4U syllabus. Include: a hook, a clear claim, and a plan of evidence.
Answer Key

Look for: a specific story title and author; a clear claim about why the story should be added (literary merit + curriculum value); a plan of evidence (form, theme, voice). Marks: 1 hook, 2 claim specificity, 1 plan, 1 conventions.

Part D — Application [25 marks]
17
[8]D · Media-Text Construction
Application Task — Storyboard a 60-second PSA on the topic "Critical reading in the age of AI-generated text" targeted at incoming Grade 9 students.

Provide:
(a) target-audience analysis (2 sentences),
(b) 4-shot storyboard (each shot specifies: framing, action, on-screen text, sound),
(c) one ethical consideration in your media construction,
(d) one reflection on how literary skills (Units 1–5) supported this design.
Marking Rubric

(a) Audience analysis (2): age-appropriate concern, prior knowledge, channel preference. (b) 4 shots × 1 = 4. (c) Ethics (1): truthfulness in claims, no fear-mongering, no overclaiming threat of AI. (d) Transfer (1): close-reading skills (tone, framing, source) applied to media construction.

18
[5]B + D · Cross-Strand Synthesis
Synthesis: In 6–8 sentences, identify one substantive connection between literary analysis (close reading of a text) and media analysis (close reading of a media text). Use one specific example from each side and explain why the same critical skill operates in both.
Marking Rubric

Strong responses: a specific connection (e.g., framing operates in both — what the narrator foregrounds in Munro is structurally analogous to what the camera frames in a TikTok; ironic tone in Atwood is structurally analogous to ironic tone in advertising). 2 marks for connection, 2 for examples (one each), 1 for communication.

19
[5]C · ISU Reflection
ISU Reflection: In 6–8 sentences, reflect on what skills the Independent Study Unit built that you could not have built through five-paragraph essays alone. Identify one specific challenge and one specific skill that transferred.
Marking Rubric

Look for: specific reflection on sustained-argument skill, source evaluation, project management, oral defence; honest acknowledgement of one challenge (time management, sourcing, sustaining argument across pages); transfer to one specific real-world or post-secondary context. Marks: 1 specificity of skill, 2 challenge depth, 1 transfer, 1 communication.

20
[7]A · Course-Wide Application
Final Synthesis: In 8–10 sentences, articulate the most important thing you learned in ENG4U about how language constructs meaning. Draw on at least two of the four strands (Oral, Reading, Writing, Media) and use one specific example from a text or media we studied. Identify one way this insight will travel beyond English class.
Marking Rubric

K/U (2): accurate use of two strands' concepts. Thinking (2): substantive insight, not generic. Communication (2): organisation, register, conventions. Application (1): explicit transfer to non-English context (university paper, civic life, professional work, personal media use). Strong responses tie language-construction insights — the gap between sayer and said in Hamlet's soliloquies, the framing choices of news writers, Munro's retrospective ironic distance — to a coherent statement about what literary/media skills do in the world.