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






2. The study of the meaning in language.






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






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






5. 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






6. The structure of a work of literature; the sequence of events.






7. A word which can be used instead of a noun. Ex instead of saying John is a student - the ____ he can be used in place of the noun John and the sentence becomes He is a student.






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






9. 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






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






11. U U '






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






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






14. 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






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






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






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






18. A stanza made up of two rhyming lines.






19. 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.






20. A novel comprised of idealized events far removed from everyday life. This genre includes the subgenres of gothic ____ and medieval ____. Examples include Mary Shelly's Frankenstein - William Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida - and King Horn (anonym






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






22. ' U






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






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






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






26. 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.






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






28. 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.






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






30. 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






31. A lesson a work of literature is teaching.






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






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






34. The feeling a text evokes in the reader - such as sadness - tranquility - or elation.






35. U '






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






37. Repetition of the final consonant sound in words containing different vowels






38. The story is told by someone outside the story.






39. 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.






40. Rhyming of the ends of lines of verse.






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






42. Persuasive writing.






43. A phrase that consists of two contradictory terms






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






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






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






47. The study of the structure of words.






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






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






50. A short story or folktale that contains a moral - which may be expressed explicitly at the end as a maxim. Examples include The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse - The Tortoise and the Hare - and The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing.