AP English Literature — Practice Questions flashcards

6 of 60 questions free to study here · 6 topics · the whole deck is built into Willys

Multiple-choice practice questions, one best answer each, on character, setting, structure, narration, figurative language, poetic form and literary argument, using short passages. The exam does not ask you to name a meter, rhyme scheme or form, so items that do are vocabulary practice.

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Practice deck · part of AP English Literature and Composition · written against: College Board AP English Literature and Composition Course and Exam Description (literary terms, devices and forms). Updated 2026-10-10.

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'When the new pastor praised her pie, Mrs. Hale said it was nothing, only a poor crust thrown together. Then she cut him a second slice before he could refuse and watched until he had eaten every crumb.' The passage characterizes Mrs. Hale chiefly as someone who:

A) belittles her baking yet plainly craves praise
B) cares little whether her guests enjoy the food
C) resents the pastor for intruding on her afternoon
D) sincerely believes that her baking is not very good

A) belittles her baking yet plainly craves praise

Her words dismiss the pie, but her actions — the insistent second slice, the watching — show she craves praise. This is indirect characterization: the gap between what she says and what she does reveals her. Her actions rule out the reading that she sincerely thinks the pie is poor.
Character
'The street lamps came on one by one, each a small surrender to the dark. Somewhere a dog barked twice and stopped, as if it had thought better of it.' The setting chiefly creates a mood of:

A) calm and contented security
B) open, violent hostility
C) festive, crowded excitement
D) quiet, uneasy expectancy

D) quiet, uneasy expectancy

Details such as each lamp as a 'surrender' and the dog that falls silent build an atmosphere of unease, as if something is about to happen. The scene is quiet, but nothing in it suggests contentment.
Setting
'Years later, Ana would remember that afternoon as the last time the three of them laughed together. At the time, it seemed like any other picnic.' The first sentence primarily functions as:

A) a flashback that interrupts the present action
B) a dénouement that resolves the main conflict
C) exposition that introduces Ana's occupation
D) foreshadowing that hints at a coming loss

D) foreshadowing that hints at a coming loss

The sentence looks forward from the picnic and signals that the three will never laugh together again — foreshadowing. A flashback would instead move back to an earlier event.
Structure › Plot and Arrangement
'Neither of them knew that the letter was already in the mail. Joan thought Peter had forgotten her birthday; Peter, three states away, thought she would never forgive him.' What point of view does the passage use?

A) Objective (dramatic)
B) Third-person limited
C) First-person
D) Third-person omniscient

D) Third-person omniscient

The narrator enters two characters' minds and reports a fact neither knows, the mark of omniscient narration. Third-person limited would stay inside one character's perceptions.
Narration › Point of View
A narrator writes that her uncle's new car 'squatted in the driveway.' The verb 'squatted' most clearly suggests that she sees the car as:

A) modest and sensibly practical
B) sleek, fast and admirable
C) fragile and in need of care
D) heavy, ugly and out of place

D) heavy, ugly and out of place

Diction carries connotation: 'squatted' implies something low, bulky and unwelcome, as though the car has occupied the driveway. Her word choice reveals her judgment without stating it.
Figurative Language › Imagery and Diction
In a story, a boy saves for a year to buy his mother a warm coat, then learns as he gives it to her that she quietly sold her own coat to pay his school fees. Which is the most defensible statement of theme?

A) The story is about a boy, his mother and two coats
B) Love can show itself most fully in hidden sacrifice
C) Children should always obey and honor their mothers
D) Money will always damage relationships in a family

B) Love can show itself most fully in hidden sacrifice

A theme is an arguable claim the work develops, phrased without absolutes. 'Always' statements flatten the story, and the description of the plot is a summary, not a theme.
Literary Argumentation › Theme and Interpretation

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About these cards

Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.

Checked against:

Facts follow this folder's two study decks, whose terms were checked against M. H. Abrams and Geoffrey Galt Harpham, A Glossary of Literary Terms, and The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (reference only; no text copied). Topic order follows the big ideas of the College Board AP English Literature and Composition Course and Exam Description (effective Fall 2024), used as a skills outline only (no text copied).
Stimulus passages are original, except brief excerpts from public-domain poems by William Shakespeare and John Donne, named where quoted.

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