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CLEP English Literature All In One

Subjects : clep, literature, 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. Early Medieval Period; The protagonist of the poem. Beowulf is a Geatish hero who fights the monster Grendel - Grendel's mother - and a fire-breathing dragon. Beowulf's exploits prove him to be the strongest - ablest warrior of his time. In his youth






2. The dramatic genre of the 1950s that enacts the idea of existential meaninglessness






3. Is a figure of speech that uses an exaggerated or extravagant statement to create a strong emotional response. As a figure of speech it is not intended to be taken literally. Hyperbole is frequently used for humour. Examples of hyperbole are: They ra






4. (1540-1640) public theaters presented plays that celebrated a semifluid social order governed by absolute power. These dramas portrayed any unchecked social mobility that might threaten state stability as the result of personal evil - corruption - an






5. Focus on the lives of the rich and elegant






6. A method of humorous or subtly sarcastic expression in which the intended meaning of the words is the direct opposite of their usual sense: the irony of calling a stupid plan 'clever'






7. Any tangible thing named in a language - regardless of whether that thing is literal or figurative






8. The pattern of rhymes in a stanza






9. A short - carefully constructed scene in a film - play - etc.; specif. - one regarded as subtle - sensitive - etc






10. Modern Period; 'Dulce et Decorum Est'






11. A novel in which real persons appear under fictitious names






12. A figure of speech in which one thing is likened to another - dissimilar thing by the use of like - as - etc. (Ex.: a heart as big as a whale - her tears flowed like wine)






13. A speech conventionally understood to convey the private thought of the character who delivers it






14. The device of presenting abstractions as human characters.






15. Unrhymed verse; esp. - unrhymed verse having five iambic feet per line - as in Elizabethan drama






16. Genre in poetry. Its formal - meditative - and intense.






17. One of the three sections of the Greek dramatic chorus and the Pindaric ode - along with the antistrophe and epode. These forms may be repeated in sequence within a single ode.






18. An extended metaphor used in a drama or narrative






19. Made up of the ideas - beliefs - and values shared by members of a society. Ideology is shaped by political interests and serves power interests in ways we might not recognize






20. Anything that isn't tangible. In literature - it can be opposed to imagery - the representation of tangible things






21. Novel a modernist form that puts a story together by tracing the thoughts and feelings of its characters rather than through the voice of a detached narrator






22. Written in the form of a series of letters exchanged by the characters - as certain novels of the 18th cent.






23. A philosophy of the Middle Ages and Renaissance that accommodated the thinking of Plato to Christian theology






24. Letters - usually formal






25. A verse form of Italian origin - made up of tercets - the second line of each tercet rhyming with the first and third lines of the next one (aba - bcb - cdc - etc.)






26. (1670-1790) identified literature as a worthy cultural pursuit capable of reconciling respect for classical learning with the evolving interests and tastes of the educated middle class. Translated - imitated - and elucidated the most respectable anci






27. Repetition at the start of a sentence of the concluding word or phrase in the previous sentence. For example: 'There's only so much exercise you can get on a plane. A air plane is not the greatest place to work out'






28. (1790-1840) poets turned inward for the inspiration to celebrate the powers of nature and the creative spirit of individualism






29. An extended simile elaborated in great detail. Also called Homeric simile






30. A sentence that changes its grammatical structure in the middle - often suggest disturbance or excitement. For example: 'we had almost reached the finished line and then the race had to have been fixed from the beginning'






31. A collection of works on a common theme such as Charlemagne or the Trojan War. Cycles typically represent the work of several different authors brought together into a group. Cycles are often groups of romance narrative.






32. A lyric from stemming from the Middle Ages that treats the subject of two lovers waking up together. It may deal with the joy of being together or with the sorrow of having to part.






33. The use of a single word in two different senses at once. For example: I just quit smoking and my job.






34. Romantic Period






35. The most common meter in English verse. It consists of a line ten syllables long that is accented on every second beat (see blank verse). These lines in iambic pentameter are from The Merchant of Venice - by William Shakespeare:In sooth -/I know/not






36. A repeated pattern of lines and rhymes analogous to a verse in a song






37. Renaissance Period; 'The Passionate Shepherd to His Love' & Doctor Faustus






38. Renaissance Period ; Paradise Lost






39. The contrast - as in a play - between what a character thinks the truth is - as revealed in a speech or action - and what an audience or reader knows the truth






40. A rhyming pair of iambic-pentameter lines - first used extensively in English by Chaucer and later developed as a syntactically complete unit - esp. by Dryden and Pope (Ex.: 'In every work regard the writer's end - Since none can compass more than th






41. Romantic period;






42. The continuation of the grammatical flow from one line of verse to the next






43. Is the idealized code of medieval nobility. It stressed honesty and integrity in living up to one's social obligations - courtesy to others - and deference to ladies.






44. A group of four works






45. The repetition of consonant sounds close to each other






46. A characteristic of art or nature that inspires a feeling of grander and mystery. For example: an ancient ruins - a storm swept landscape - of the fall of Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost.






47. An important narrative form that emerges at the threshold between orality and literacy. They are written down at some point after a period of oral development. Beowulf is considered an epic.






48. In deconstruction - things that are absent from yet suggested by a text. A trace may be the opposite of a written word






49. The semblance of truth - a quality that helps distinguish the early novel from fable and romance






50. Poetry that has no fixed meter - although it has rhythmic lines and line breaks and is therefore presumably composed with rhythmic qualities in mind. It came into vogue during the modern period.