Study Guide

Field 058: World Languages—Latin
Sample Multiple-Choice Questions

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Objective 0002
Interpretive Communication Skills (Standard 3)

A teacher gives students the following direction: "Nōlīte loquī, sed levāte manum!" The correct response from the students is to:

  1. take their seats immediately.
  2. raise their hands before speaking.
  3. tell the answer to a partner.
  4. read aloud as a group.
Answer
Correct Response: B.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate the ability to recognize spoken commands likely to be used in the Latin classroom. The teacher's direction means, "Do not speak, but raise your hand."
Objective 0002
Interpretive Communication Skills (Standard 3)

Read the ode below by Horace; then answer the five questions that follow.

  1. Integer vītae scelerisque pūrus
  2. nōn eget Maurīs iaculīs neque arcū
  3. nec venēnātīs gravidā sagittīs,
  4. Fusce, pharetrā,

  5. sīve per Syrtīs iter aestuōsās
  6. sive factūrus per inhospitālem
  7. Caucasum vel quae loca fābulōsus
  8. lambit Hydaspēs.

  9. Namque mē silvā lupus in Sabīnā,
  10. dum meam cantō Lalagēn et ultrā
  11. terminum cūrīs vagor expedītīs,
  12. fūgit inermem,

  13. quāle portentum neque mīlitāris
  14. Dauniās lātīs alit aesculētīs
  15. nec Iubae tellūs generat, leōnum
  16. ārida nutrix.

  17. Pōne mē pigrīs ubi nulla campīs
  18. arbor aestīvā recreātur aurā,
  19. quod latus mundī nebulae malusque
  20. Iuppiter urget;

  21. pōne sub currū nimium propinquī
  22. sōlis, in terrā domibus negātā:
  23. dulce rīdentem Lalagēn amābō,
  24. dulce loquentem.

(Horace, Carmina 1.22)

Which of the following statements best expresses the main idea of this ode?

  1. Roman power extends over a wide geographical area.
  2. People in love are protected regardless of where they might travel.
  3. Wolves represent a threat to the poet's well-being.
  4. Poets are most suited to glorify the extent of the Roman Empire.
Answer
Correct Response: B.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate the ability to apply literal and inferential comprehension skills to identify or infer essential information from a passage of poetry. In this ode, Horace recounts to Fuscus how he was protected from a wolf while singing of his beloved. He playfully extrapolates from this experience the claim that people in love are so pure of heart that they need no other weapon but their integrity wherever they go.

According to this ode, what does Horace believe about the incident in the woods?

  1. He should never sing in the Sabine woods again.
  2. The wolf was a sign of coming peace with Daunia and Iuba.
  3. His singing as a love poet protected him from the wolf.
  4. He should be more careful when wandering through the woods.
Answer
Correct Response: C.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate the ability to apply literal and inferential comprehension skills to identify or infer essential information from a passage of poetry. "Namque" (for) in line 9 indicates that Horace is going to explain his conclusion that the upright man needs no weapons wherever he goes. The story of how a wolf fled from him while he was singing of his beloved is offered then as an indication of the power of his purity of heart.

Which of the following choices is the best literal translation of the phrase "Pōne mē pigrīs ubi nulla campīs arbor aestīvā recreātur aurā" (lines 17–18)?

  1. Place me in the sluggish fields where no tree is revived by the summer breeze.
  2. Place me where no summer breeze revives the sluggish trees in the fields.
  3. Place me where no fields revive the sluggish trees in the summer breeze.
  4. Place me amid the sluggish trees where no summer breeze revives the fields.
Answer
Correct Response: A.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate the ability to identify an accurate English translation of a passage of poetry. "Pigrīs" and "campīs" are both ablative plural: "in sluggish fields." "Nulla" and "arbor" are both nominative singular, so "no tree" is the subject. "Aestīvā" and "aurā" are both ablative singular: "by the summer breeze." "Recreātur" is in the passive voice: "is revived."

Which of the following figures of speech is found in the phrase "dulce rīdentem Lalagēn amābō, dulce loquentem" (lines 23–24)?

  1. synecdoche
  2. chiasmus
  3. anaphora
  4. hendiadys
Answer
Correct Response: C.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate the ability to recognize common figures of speech used in a passage of poetry. The repetition of "dulce" is an example of anaphora.

In which of the following meters is this poem written?

  1. Sapphic stanzas
  2. elegiac couplets
  3. dactylic hexameter
  4. hendecasyllabic
Answer
Correct Response: A.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate the ability to identify metrical elements in lines of poetry. The Sapphic stanza includes three lines with an identical metrical pattern, followed by a shorter fourth line.
Objective 0004
Language Acquisition (Standard 1)

According to Stephen Krashen's Input Hypothesis, a world language teacher would best promote the development of students' vocabulary in the target language by:

  1. having students look up new words in a dictionary.
  2. posting lists of frequently used words in the classroom.
  3. emphasizing accurate pronunciation of new words.
  4. using new words along with words that students know.
Answer
Correct Response: D.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate understanding of major theories of first- and second-language acquisition. Stephen Krashen's Input Hypothesis stresses the importance of having language input that is slightly more advanced than the level of the learner's current competence. When a teacher uses new words that students may not know in addition to words that they already know, students have the opportunity to learn new vocabulary through the process of determining meaning through context.
Objective 0005
Instruction and Assessment (Standard 6)

In a beginning-level Latin class, the teacher can best facilitate an immersion experience for the students by:

  1. providing dictionaries and showing students how to use them.
  2. penalizing students for using their primary language.
  3. having each student choose a Latin name to be used during class.
  4. responding in Latin to all students' questions.
Answer
Correct Response: D.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of strategies for maximizing the use of the target language in the language classroom and for providing students with opportunities to communicate in the target language in meaningful ways at all stages of language acquisition. Language immersion is a method in which as much classroom instruction and interaction as possible takes place in the target language. The focus of a language immersion experience should be to emphasize the use of the target language in all possible contexts. The best way to provide that experience in a beginning-level world language class would be to use the target language whenever possible, such as by providing responses to students' questions in the target language.