Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The Onion: An Example of Satire


The Onion is a very good source for satirical articles about every topic. Once example can be found by following the link http://www.theonion.com/content/news/american_airlines_now_charging. This article says that American Airlines is now not only charging the people who are flying, but also people that are not flying. This is poking fun at airlines for increasing their prices, by giving a completely exaggerated account of what the airlines are doing. Since the article is written to be serious and funny at the same time, it is entertaining to read, while seriously discussing the issue of ever increasing plane tickets. Therefore this article is a good example of satire, because according to Wikipedia: "In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improvement." As it states, the intent of satire is to bring improvement, which in this case is to ridicule the airlines.

The Mock Exam


The mock exam that we had on Saturday the 13th of December was slightly difficult, but a good exercise for the real AP English Literature exam. The most difficult part was coming up with a good thesis that answered the questions properly. This was difficult because, although one of the questions was easy, the other two essay questions were rather challenging. On the other hand, the multiple choice was not so difficult, and I scored 40 out of 55. Compared to the AP English Language exam the essays were harder, and the multiple choice was about the same in terms of difficulty. I think it was good to have the exam prior to the break, because now if we have to do a second mock, we still have time before the real exam. There is not really a way to prepare for the mock, so I think for not doing any preparing I did quite well.