Analyze How Form Contributes to Meaning Practice Test

Read the soliloquy below from a play. The character, Mina, is alone onstage just before she tells her best friend she’s moving away.

MINA (alone):

They think I’m packed with courage—

all neat boxes, all good-byes tied tight.

But my hands won’t stop shaking.

I smile like a zipper, closed and shining,

while my stomach drops floor by floor.

If I tell Jae tonight,

his face will crack like thin ice.

If I wait,

the secret grows teeth.

I want to be brave.

I want to be honest.

Why do those two wants fight

like dogs over one bone?

How does the soliloquy form contribute to the meaning of this moment?

Read the dramatic dialogue below. Two siblings, Rowan and Elise, are cleaning out their grandmother’s house.

ROWAN: Don’t open that drawer.

ELISE: Why? It’s just a drawer.

ROWAN: It’s not “just.” It’s where she kept the letters.

ELISE: The letters you never answered?

ROWAN: I was busy.

ELISE: You were avoiding.

ROWAN: You don’t know what it felt like.

ELISE: Then tell me. Stop guarding silence like it’s treasure.

ROWAN: If I read them, it becomes real.

ELISE: It’s already real. That’s why you’re shaking.

How does the dialogue form contribute to the meaning of the scene?