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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. U '






2. A brief fictional prose narrative. Examples include Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery -' Washington Irving's 'Rip van Winkle' D.H. Lawrence's 'The Horse Dealer's Daughter -' Arthur Conan Doyle's 'Hound of the Baskervilles -' and Dorothy Parker's 'Big Bl






3. Simple - compound (conjunctions) - complex (subordination) - compound - complex (conjunctions and subordination).






4. A comparison of two unlike things - usually including the word like or as.






5. Opposing elements or characters in a plot.






6. A person - place - thing - or event used to represent something else - such as the white flag that represents surrender.






7. The flaw that leads to the downfall of a tragic hero; this term comes from the Greek word hybris - which means 'excessive pride.'






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






9. A word which describes or gives more information about a noun or pronoun. Ex. The lazy dog sat on the rug - the word lazy is an ____ which gives more information about the noun dog.






10. A suspenseful story that deals with a puzzling crime. Examples include Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Murder in Rue Morgue' and Charles Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood.






11. A word which shows relationships among other words in the sentence. The relationships include direction - place - time - cause - manner and amount Ex. In the sentence He came by bus - 'by' is a _____ which shows manner.






12. Two or more words in sequence that form a syntactic unit that is less than a complete sentence.






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






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






15. A long narrative poem detailing a hero's deeds. Examples include The Aenied by Vergil - The Illiad and The Odyssey by Homer - Beowulf - Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes - War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - and Hiawath






16. Narrative fiction that involves gods and heroes or has a theme that expresses a culture's ideology. Examples of Greek ______ include Zeus and the Olympians and The Trojan War. Roman ______ include Hercules - Apollo - and Venus.






17. A literary technique in which the author gives hints or clues about what is to come at some point later in the story.






18. The time and place in which a story occurs.






19. A short narrative - usually between 50 and 100 pages long. Examples include George Orwell's Animal Farm and Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis.






20. The use of words to create pictures in the reader's mind.






21. Literature that makes fun of social conventions or conditions - usually to evoke change.






22. A reference to a familiar person - place - thing - or event






23. The regular or random occurrence of sound in poetry.






24. The main section of a long poem.






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






26. Occurs when there are two or more possible meanings to a word or phrase.






27. A person who opposes or competes with the main character (protagonist); often the villain in the story.






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






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






30. 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






31. An author's choice of words based on their clearness - conciseness - effectiveness - and authenticity.






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






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






34. 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.






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






36. A text or performance that imitates and mocks an author or work.






37. A narrative that is made up of fantastic characters and creatures - such as witches - goblins - and fairies - and usually begins with the phrase 'Once upon a time...' Examples include Rapunzel - Cinderella - Sleeping Beauty - and Little Red Riding Ho






38. A narrative form - such as an epic - legend - myth - song - poem - or fable - that has been retold within a culture for generations. Examples include The People Couldn't Fly retold by Virginia Hamilton and And Green Grass Grew All Around by Alvin Sch






39. The writer says one thing and means another






40. 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.






41. An expository piece written with eloquence that becomes part of the recognized literature of an era. Often reveal historical facts - the social mores of the times - and the thoughts and personality of the author. Some have recorded and influenced the






42. A phrase that consists of two contradictory terms






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45. A poem that is a mournful lament for the dead. Examples include William Shakespeare's 'Eligy' from Cymbeline - Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Requiem -' and Alfred Lord Tennysone's 'In Memoriam.'






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






47. A turn from the general audience to address a specific group of persons (or a personified abstraction) who is present of absent. For example - in a recent performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet - Hamlet turned to the audience and spoke directly to one w






48. The narrator shares the thoughts and feelings of one (or a few) character(s).






49. 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






50. The multiple use of a word - phrase - or idea for emphasis or rhythmic effect.