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English 9

Unit 1

Reading Fiction: Plot, Setting and Conflict

6 topics · 24 practice questions · Free responseNot yet reviewed

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Notes

Plot structure

  • Exposition introduces characters and setting; the inciting incident starts the conflict.
  • Rising action builds tension to the climax, the turning point.
  • Falling action shows the results; the resolution settles the conflict.

Setting and mood

  • Setting is time and place, including weather, era and social environment.
  • Sensory details create mood, the reader's feeling. Setting can also cause conflict.

Conflict

  • Internal: character vs. self. External: vs. character, nature, society or technology.
  • Conflict creates tension and drives the plot.

Time, hints and suspense

  • Foreshadowing hints at later events; a flashback shows an earlier event.
  • Suspense comes from danger, withheld information and dramatic irony. Short sentences speed pacing; long description slows it.

Inference

  • An inference combines text clues with prior knowledge. Support it with specific textual evidence.

Topics in this unit

Each topic has its own short notes and practice.

Practice

In which part of the plot does tension reach its highest point?
"Snow had buried the road for three days. The cabin's woodpile shrank to a few logs, and the radio crackled with only static." The main conflict suggested is:
"Before leaving, Sam noticed the brakes squealed, but he was already late." This sentence is an example of:
"The hallway lights flickered. A door at the far end stood half open, and a cold draft carried the smell of damp stone." The mood is:
"Nina hid the report card under her mattress and smiled too brightly at dinner." What can you infer?
Which change would most speed up the pacing of a chase scene?

Free response

Write your answer first, then open the scoring guide.

Free-response question

Read the passage: "The last bus had left. Rosa stood alone at the station as rain hammered the tin roof. Her phone flashed 2 percent, then went dark. Across the street, a man in a gray hood had been watching her for ten minutes."

(a) Describe the setting and the mood it creates. Cite two details.

Show the answer and scoring guide

The setting is a deserted bus station at night in heavy rain. The mood is tense and unsettling, shown by "rain hammered the tin roof" and Rosa standing "alone" after the last bus left.

Check off the points you earned:

(b) Identify one conflict Rosa faces and its type.

Show the answer and scoring guide

Rosa faces an external conflict (character vs. character) with the man watching her, who may be a threat. Another acceptable answer: character vs. nature or technology, as the storm and dead phone leave her stranded.

Check off the points you earned:

(c) Explain how the author builds suspense in the passage.

Show the answer and scoring guide

The author removes Rosa's ways out (no bus, dead phone) and ends with a stranger watching her. The reader does not know his intentions, so the withheld information makes us anxious about what happens next.

Check off the points you earned: