Test your basic knowledge |

Praxis Middle School Language Arts

Subjects : praxis, english
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. A metric line of poetry. Its name is based on the kind and number of feet composing it ('foot').






2. Informal language used by a particular group of people among themselves.






3. Literature - often drama - ending in a catastrophic event for the protagonist(s) after he or she faces several problems or conflicts.






4. A figure of speech in which a comparison is implied but not stated - such as 'This winter is a bear.'






5. A short poem - often written by an anonymous author - comprised of short verses intended to be sung or recited.






6. The repetition of a line or phrase of a poem at regular intervals - particularly at the end of each stanza.






7. A group of words containing a subject and a predicate and forming part of a compound or complex sentence.






8. A word that connects other words or groups of words. Ex. In the sentence Bob and Dan are friends - the _____ 'and' connects two nouns and in the sentence.






9. Opposing elements or characters in a plot.






10. The telling of a story.






11. An expression that has been used so often that it loses its expressive power






12. A story in which people (or things or actions) represent an idea or a generalization about life. Usually have a strong lesson or moral.






13. A narrative about human actions that is perceived by both the teller and the listeners to have taken place within human history and that possesses certain qualities that give the tale the appearance of truth or reality. Washington Irvin's The Legend






14. A wise saying - usually short and written.






15. A word which names a person - place or thing. Ex. boy - river - friend - Mexico - triangle - day - school - truth - university - idea - John F. Kennedy - movie






16. A word that gives more information about a noun or pronoun. Ex. Sue runs very fast - very describes the ____ fast and gives information about how fast Sue runs.






17. A short poem about personal feelings and emotions.






18. The main section of a long poem.






19. A kind of adjective which is always used with and gives some information about a noun. There are only two _____ a and the.






20. The study of the sounds of language and their physical properties.






21. Language that is intended to be evasive or to conceal. Ex. 'downsized' actually means fired or loss of job.






22. The reader sees a character's errors - but the character does not






23. The outcome or resolution of plot in a story.






24. The perspective from which the story is told - four choices: first person; 3rd person (dramatic - objective); 3rd person omniscient; 3rd person limited omniscient.






25. Narrative fiction that is set in some earlier time and often contains historically authentic people - places - or events






26. The study of the orgin of words






27. The role of context in the interpretation of meaning.






28. A comparison of objects or ideas that appear to be different but are alike in some important way.






29. A fourteen - line poem - usually written in iambic pentameter - with a varied rhyme scheme. Two main types are Petrarchan (or Italian) and the Shakespearean (or English). A Petrarchan opens with an octave that states a proposition and ends with a ses






30. The analysis of how sounds function in a language or dialect.






31. The most specific or direct meaning of a word - in contrast to its figurative or associated meanings.






32. The repetition of initial consonant sounds in words - such a 'Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.'






33. The study of the structure of sentences.






34. Old - fashioned words that are no longer used in common speech - such as thee - thy - and thou.






35. A verb form that usually ends in - ing or - ed.






36. A metrical ______ is defined as one stressed syllable and a number of unstressed syllables (from zero to as many as four). Stressed syllables are indicated by the ? symbol. Unstressed syllables are indicated by the ? symbol. There are four possible t






37. Language that shows disrespect for others or something sacred.






38. Language widely considered crude - disgusting - and oftentimes offensive.






39. ' U U






40. A repetition of the same sound in words close to one another






41. The story is told from the point of view of one character.






42. Rhyming of the ends of lines of verse.






43. A variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area.






44. A pair of lines of poetic verse written in iambic pentameter.






45. A person or thing working against the hero of a literary work (the protagonist).






46. A philosophy that values human freedom and personal responsibility. A few well known _______ writers are Jean - Paul Satre - Soren Kierkegaard ('the father of _______') - Albert Camus - Freidrich Nietzche - Franz Kafka - and Simone de Beauvoir.






47. Deals with current or future development of technological advances. Examples are Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse - Five - George Orwell's 1984 - Aldous Huxley's Brave New World - and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.






48. Fiction that is intended to frighten - unsettle - or scare the reader. Often overlaps with fantasy and science fiction. Examples include Stephen King's The Shining - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - and Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes.






49. Verse that contains an irregular metrical pattern and line length; also known as vers libre.






50. The study of the meaning in language.