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Plot Structure
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[pause] 00:07: One important way to try to understand stories is to understand the structure of a story. So, an important piece of understanding is what's called plot structure. There are generally five parts of a plot structure: the exposition, the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution. So, let's talk about these, in terms of a well-known story of Little Red Riding Hood. So, the exposition sets up characters and conflicts. At the beginning of the Little Red Riding Hood story, we have Little Red Riding Hood, who has a sick grandmother, and she wants to deliver some goodies to her. So, that sets up our situation and our conflict. She's far away, she needs to deliver the goodies. 00:49: Rising action, the conflict progresses, the story develops. Here, we have the introduction of the Big Bad Wolf. He wants the cookies, he starts to ask questions and hide. It even goes as far as to the part where he dresses up as Grandma, and Little Red Riding Hood starts asking the questions, brings us to our climax, which is the turning point or the high point of the story, when the wolf reveals himself and says, "All the better to eat you with," and gobbles Little Red Riding Hood up. This is the turning point of the story, everything else has to go from there. 01:22: So, the next part of your plot structure is the falling action. In the Little Red Riding Hood story, at this point, she's been swallowed, and it takes a huntsman showing up, a woodsman shows up and chops the wolf's stomach open and gets Little Red Riding Hood out, and saves Red Riding Hood. And so, now the wolf was done and Red Riding Hood has been saved, which brings us to the resolution, which is the ending or the conclusion of the story, where Red Riding Hood gets to see her grandmother, and everything goes back to normal there. 01:54: So, most stories follow this structure, in one way or another. And these are the five important parts, so the exposition, the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution.
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Question 1
The ____ is the beginning or introduction to the story and its characters.
Responses
A expositionexposition
B rising actionrising action
C climaxclimax
Question 2
The ____ of the story is the peak of action at which point you can see how the story is going to end.
Responses
A expositionexposition
B rising actionrising action
C climaxclimax
Question 3
____ describes the ending or conclusion of the story.
Responses
A ClimaxClimax
B ResolutionResolution
C ForeshadowingForeshadowing
Question 1: A) exposition
Question 2: C) climax
Question 3: B) Resolution