CLEP Composition and Literature Exam Questions and Answers (Page: 2)

QUESTION: 6

The author of Common Sense was

James Madison
Langston Hughes
Alexander Hamilton
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Paine

Answer(s): E

Explanation:

Thomas Paine published Common Sense in 1776. In it, he argued that the colonies had outgrown the need for English rule and should be granted independence.

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QUESTION: 7

Ichabod Crane is the main character in which of the following works?

Leaves of Grass
The Guilded Age
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
“Rip Van Winkle”
Last of the Mohicans

Answer(s): C

Explanation:

Ichabod Crane is the itinerant schoolteacher who has a terrifying encounter with the Headless Horseman in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

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QUESTION: 8

Who has earned the nickname “The Father of the American Novel”?

Washington Irving
Edgar Allan Poe
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Charles Brockden Brown
Henry David Thoreau

Answer(s): D

Explanation:

Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) was the first American novelist. His gothic romances set in America formed the basis of later American masters Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

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QUESTION: 9

Who wrote the first American slave autobiography after obtaining his freedom?

Josiah Henson
Frederick Douglass
Nat Turner
William Wells Brown
Olaudah Equiano

Answer(s): E

Explanation:

Olaudah Equiano was born in what is now Nigeria before being captured and sold as a slave in America. After his escape, he traveled to England where he wrote an account of his time as a slave in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789).

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QUESTION: 10

May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: “Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and he heard their voice, and looked on their adversity, etc. Let them therefore praise the Lord, because he is good, and his mercies endure forever. Yea, let them which have been redeemed of the Lord, show how he hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered in the desert wilderness out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry, and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord his loving kindness, and his wonderful works before the sons of men.”

In the passage above, what form of oppression is the author writing about?

Economic
Religious
Racial
Environmental
Gender

Answer(s): B

Explanation:

This passage comes from Chapter 9 of William Bradford’s History of the Plymouth Plantation. He uses Old Testament imagery to describe the flight of the Puritans to escape the religious oppression they suffered in England.

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Test Prep CLEP Composition and Literature Exam (page: 2) Test Prep CLEP Composition and Literature: American Literature, English Literature, Humanities Updated on: 09-Feb-2026

QUESTION: 6

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QUESTION: 7

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QUESTION: 8

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QUESTION: 9

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QUESTION: 10

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Test Prep CLEP Composition and Literature Exam (page: 2)
Test Prep CLEP Composition and Literature: American Literature, English Literature, Humanities
Updated on: 09-Feb-2026