GRADGPT PRACTICE EXAM
AP English Literature
Free-Response Questions
AP LIT PRACTICE EXAM 4
Original AP English Literature FRQ practice set with poetry, prose, and literary argument questions.
© GradGPT. Original practice content. Not affiliated with College Board or AP®.
AP ENGLISH LITERATURE • FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONSGradGPT Practice
SECTION II
Free-Response Questions
Suggested time: 2 hours.
Directions
  • Section II has 3 free-response questions and lasts 2 hours.
  • This section of the exam requires answers in essay form. Each essay will be judged on its clarity and effectiveness in dealing with the assigned topic and on the quality of the writing. In responding to Question 3, select a work of fiction that will be appropriate to the question. Use a work that you are familiar with from your AP English Literature class or from other literature you have previously read.
  • You may pace yourself as you answer the questions in this section, or you may use these optional timing recommendations:
  • It is suggested that you spend an equal amount of time, approximately 40 minutes, on each question.
GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.© GradGPT. Original practice content. Not affiliated with College Board.
AP ENGLISH LITERATURE • FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONSGradGPT Practice
1.
The following poem, “Spring and Fall” by the English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, was written in 1880 and published posthumously in 1918. The poem is addressed to a young child grieving over the falling of autumn leaves. Read the poem carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze how Hopkins uses literary elements and techniques to convey the speaker’s complex understanding of Margaret’s sorrow.

In your response you should do the following:

  • Respond to the prompt with a thesis that presents a defensible interpretation.
  • Select and use evidence to support your line of reasoning.
  • Explain how the evidence supports your line of reasoning.
  • Use appropriate grammar and punctuation in communicating your argument.

Spring and Fall

to a young child

Márgarét, áre you gríeving

Over Goldengrove unleaving?

Leáves like the things of man, you

With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?

5Áh! ás the heart grows older

It will come to such sights colder

By and by, nor spare a sigh

Though worlds of wanwood1 leafmeal2 lie;

And yet you wíll weep and know why.

10Now no matter, child, the name:

Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same.

Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed

What heart heard of, ghost3 guessed:

It ís the blight man was born for,

15It is Margaret you mourn for.

Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Spring and Fall” (written 1880; published 1918). Public domain.

1Hopkins’s coinage: pale or wan woods; a wood in autumn drained of color

2Hopkins’s coinage: leaves fallen and broken into pieces, like grain ground into meal

3spirit; in Hopkins’s usage often the soul or the Holy Ghost

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.© GradGPT. Original practice content. Not affiliated with College Board.
PREVIEW
Practice this exam in Arena
Avoid test day surprises, get exam ready in the Arena
START FREE
Sign in with Google
OR
Browse all practice sets