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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. The perspective from which a story is told.






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






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






4. 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






5. 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.






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






7. A break in the rhythm of language - particularly a natural pause in a in a line of verse - maked in prosody by a double vertical line ( || ). Ex. Arma virumque cano - || Troiae qui primus ab oris .






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






9. A novel set in the western U.S. featuring the experiences of cowboys and frontiersmen. Examples include Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage and Trail Driver - Larry McMurty's Lonesome Dove - Conrad Richter's The Sea of Grass - Fran Striker's The Lo






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






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






12. Rhyming of the ends of lines of verse.






13. A lesson a work of literature is teaching.






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






15. Also known as a run - on line in poetry - _____ occurs when one line ends and continues onto the next line to complete meaning. For example the first line in Thoreau's poem 'My life has been the poem I would have writ -' and the second line completes






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






17. The telling of a story.






18. A document organized in paragraph form that can be long or short and can be in the form of a letter - dialogue - or discussion. Examples include Politics and the English Language by George Orwell - The American Scholar by Ralph Waldo Emerson - and Mo






19. A short poem about personal feelings and emotions.






20. A variation of a language used by people who live in a particular geographical area.






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






22. The study of the structure of words.






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






24. The use of a word or phrase to mean the exact opposite of its literal or expected meaning. There are three types....Dramatic - Verbal - Situation.






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






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






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






28. During the mid -19th century in New England - several writers and intellectuals worked together to write - translate works - and publish. Their philosophy focused on protesting the Puritan ethic and materialism. They valued individualism - freedom -






29. The act or an example of substituting a mild - indirect - or vague term for one considered harsh - blunt - or offensive.






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






31. U U '






32. The specialized language of a particular group or culture. Ex. in the field of education...rubric - tuning protocol - and deskilling.






33. The main section of a long poem.






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






36. A literary device in which animals - ideas - and things are represented as having human traits.






37. 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.






38. A category of literature defined by its style - form - and content.






39. 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.






40. A method an author uses to let readers know more about the characters and their personal traits.






41. 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.






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






43. The main character or hero of a written work.






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






45. An extended fictional prose narrative.






46. A type of pun - or play on words - that results when two words become mixed up in the speaker's mind






47. A rhythmical pattern in verse that is made up of stressed and unstressed syllables.






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






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






50. Unrhymed verse - often occurring in iambic pentameter.