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. The study of the orgin of words






2. ' U U






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






4. 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






5. 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 -






6. 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.






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






8. 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.






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






10. 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






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






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






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






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






15. A person's account of his or hew own life.






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






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






18. A lesson a work of literature is teaching.






19. 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.






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






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






22. The perspective from which a story is told.






23. 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






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






25. A socially accepted word or phrase used to replace unacceptable language - such as expressions for bodily functions or body parts. Also used as substitutes for straightforward words to tactfully conceal or falsify meaning. Ex. My grandmother passed a






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






27. An extended fictional prose narrative.






28. The narrator shares the thoughts and feelings of all the characters.






29. Rhyming of the ends of lines of verse.






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






31. A narrative technique in which the main story is composed primarily for the purpose of organizing a set of shorter stories - each of which is a story within a story. Examples include Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales - Ovid's Metamorphoses - and Em






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






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






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






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






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






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






38. 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.






39. ' U






40. A wise saying - usually short and written.






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






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






43. A genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot - theme - and/or setting. Examples include J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia - and William Morris' The Well at the World's E






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






45. The time and place in which the action of a story takes place.






46. The purpose of a particular action differs greatly from the result






47. A division of poetry named for the number of lines it contains...Couplet: Two - lines - Triplet: Three - lines - Quatrain: Four - lines - Quintet: Five - lines - Sestet: Six- lines - Septet: Seven - lines - Octave: Eight - lines.






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






49. 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 .






50. Rhyme that occurs within a line of verse.