SUBJECTS
|
BROWSE
|
CAREER CENTER
|
POPULAR
|
JOIN
|
LOGIN
Business Skills
|
Soft Skills
|
Basic Literacy
|
Certifications
About
|
Help
|
Privacy
|
Terms
|
Email
Search
Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres
Start Test
Study First
Subjects
:
clep
,
literature
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 play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.
Epistolary novel
Novella
One-act play
Novel of ideas
2. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.
Legend
Historical novel
Aphorism
Black comedy
3. A succinct - witty statement - often in verse. For example - William Wordsworth's observation 'The child is the father of the man.'
Mystery play
Farce
Epigram
Metafiction
4. A poetic work that features the strong rhythms of free versebut is presented on the page in the form of prose - without line breaks.
Short story
Science fiction
Prose poem
Epistolary novel
5. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.
Elegy
Pastiche
Novel
Burlesque
6. Originally - a realistic novel detailing a scoundrel's exploits. The term grew to refer more generally to any novel with a loosely structured - episodic plot that revolves around the adventures of a central character.
Comedy
Picaresque novel
Burlesque
Noh drama
7. A humorous imitation of a serious work of literature. The humor often arises from the incongruity between the imitation and the work being imitated. For example - Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock uses the high diction of epic poetry to talk abou
Novel of ideas
Epigram
Burlesque
Aphorism
8. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.
Confessional poetry
Epigram
Problem play
Play
9. A poem that contains words that a fictional or historical character speaks to a particular audience. Alfred - Lord Tennyson's 'Ulysses' is a famous example.
Dramatic monologue
Science fiction
Myth
Miracle play
10. A short play based on a biblical story.
Mystery play
Picaresque novel
Elegy
Biography
11. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.
Fiction
Tragedy
Autobiographical novel
Epic theater
12. Disturbing or absurd material presented in a humorous manner - usually with the intention to confront uncomfortable truths. Joseph Heller's Catch-22 is a notable example.
Black comedy
Anecdote
Parody
Play
13. A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play.
Prose poem
Bildungsroman
Morality play
Drama
14. Works that express a preference for the natural over the artificial in human culture - and a belief that the life of primitive cultures is preferable to modern lifestyles.
Primitivist literature
Mystery play
Drama
Fiction
15. Traditionally - a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language - often with a refrain.
Myth
Ballad
Pastoral
Soliloquy
16. A genre of fiction that presents an imagined future society that purports to be perfect and utopian but that the author presents to the reader as horrifyingly inhuman.
Dystopic literature
Autobiography
Allegory
One-act play
17. A work of fiction of middle length - often divided into a few short chapters - such as Henry James's Daisy Miller.
Ballad
Burlesque
Novella
Tragedy
18. A play from the Middle Ages featuring saints or miraculous appearances by the Virgin Mary.
Chivalric romance
Novel
Miracle play
Pastoral
19. A short poetic expression of grief. It differs from an elegy in that it often is embedded within a larger work - is less highly structured - and is meant to be sung.
Memoir
Epistolary novel
Prose poem
Dirge
20. The brief narration of a single event or incident.
Novel of ideas
Propaganda
Metafiction
Anecdote
21. A narrative work that reports true events.
Metafiction
Nonfiction
Verse novel
Satire
22. A lighthearted play characterized by humor and a happy ending.
Lyric
Social protest novel
Comedy
Pastoral
23. A story about a heroic figure derived from oral tradition and based partly on fact and partly on fiction.
Epic
Legend
Pastiche
Novel of manners
24. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
Bildungsroman
Problem play
Science fiction
Tragicomedy
25. A narrative in which literal meaning corresponds clearly and directly to symbolic meaning. For example - the literal story in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress
Novel
Allegory
Drama
Science fiction
26. A short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory.
Parable
Memoir
Parody
Novella
27. A speech - often in verse - by a lone character. The most famous example being the 'To be or not to be' speech in Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Biography
Science fiction
Soliloquy
Aphorism
28. A concise expression of insight or wisdom: 'The vanity of others offends our taste only when it offends our vanity' (Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil).
Anecdote
Primitivist literature
Elegy
Aphorism
29. A novel that focuses on the social customs of a certain class of people - often with a sharp eye for irony. Jane Austen's novels are prime examples of this genre.
Short-short story
Dramatic monologue
Novel of manners
Fable
30. Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example - Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.
Didactic literature
Aphorism
Nonfiction
Essay
31. A work of prose fiction that is much shorter than a novel (rarely more than forty pages) and focused more tightly on a single event.
Dirge
Play
Short story
Allegory
32. A play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory of the Christian struggle for salvation.
Morality play
Ode
Tragicomedy
Drama
33. A fiction genre - popularized in the 1940s - with a cynical - disillusioned - loner protagonist.
Farce
Propaganda
Dramatic monologue
Noir
34. A formal poem that laments the death of a friend or public figure - or - occasionally - a meditation on death itself. In Greek and Latin poetry - the term applies to a specific type of meter (alternating hexameters and pentameters) regardless of cont
Confessional poetry
Metafiction
Noir
Elegy
35. A short prose or verse narrative - such as those by Aesop - that illustrates a moral - which often is stated explicitly at the end.
Fable
Dystopic literature
Fiction
Eclogue
36. A novel - such as Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea - that the author uses as a platform for discussing ideas. Character and plot are of secondary importance.
Pastoral
Satire
Novel of ideas
Novel
37. Fiction that concerns the nature of fiction itself - either by reinterpreting a previous fictional work or by drawing attention to its own fictional status.
Metafiction
Dirge
Anecdote
Farce
38. A lengthy narrative that describes the deeds of a heroic figure - often of national or cultural importance - in elevated language. Strictly - the term applies only to verse narratives like Beowulf or Virgil's Aeneid - but it is used to describe prose
Pastoral
Memoir
Chivalric romance
Epic
39. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.
Epigram
Black comedy
Fiction
Picaresque novel
40. A novel written in the form of letters exchanged by characters in the story - such as Samuel Richardson's Clarissa or Alice Walker's The Color Purple. This form was especially popular in the 1700s.
Epistolary novel
Pastoral
Novella
Memoir
41. The nonfictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated examples.
Black comedy
Biography
Prose poem
Aphorism
42. A form of high-energy comedy that plays on confusions and deceptions between characters and features a convoluted and fast-paced plot.
Tragicomedy
Farce
Dirge
Fable
43. A story about the origins of a culture's beliefs and practices - or of supernatural phenomena - usually derived from oral tradition and set in an imagined supernatural past.
Noir
Epic
Myth
Science fiction
44. A German term - meaning 'formation novel -' for a novel about a child or adolescent's development into maturity - with special focus on the protagonist's quest for identity. James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a notable example.
Autobiographical novel
Epistolary novel
Bildungsroman
Black comedy
45. A serious lyric poem - often of significant length - that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical structure.
Ode
Drama
Bildungsroman
Dystopic literature
46. A short pastoral poem in the form of a dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil's Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.
Biography
Dramatic monologue
Picaresque novel
Eclogue
47. A celebration of the simple - rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses - usually written by a sophisticated - urban writer.
Satire
Pastoral
Problem play
Primitivist literature
48. A novel in which the author's aim is to tell a story that illuminates and draws attention to contemporary social problems with the goal of inciting change for the better. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin - which exposed the horrors of Africa
Dirge
Dystopic literature
Social protest novel
Nonfiction
49. A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow - stylized movement.
Noh drama
Primitivist literature
Dirge
Satire
50. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.
Black comedy
Pastiche
Autobiographical novel
Romance