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






2. An extended fictional prose narrative.






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






4. 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






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






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






7. Meter that is composed of feet that are short - short - long or unaccented - unaccented - accented - usually used in light or whimsical poetry - such as limerick.






8. 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






9. 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.






10. 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.






11. A method by which trained readers evaluate a piece of writing for its overall quality. There is no focus on one aspect of the writing.






12. 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.






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






14. A word which shows action or state of being. Ex. In the sentence The dog bit the man - bit is the ____.






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






16. A word which shows relationships among other words in the sentence. The relationships include direction - place - time - cause - manner and amount Ex. In the sentence He came by bus - 'by' is a _____ which shows manner.






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






18. The set of associations implied by a word in addition to its literal meaning.






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






20. 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.






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






22. The study of the sounds of language and their physical properties.






23. 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






24. 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 -






25. A comparison of objects or ideas that appear to be different but are alike in some important way.






26. Distinctive features of a person's speech and speech patterns.






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






28. The study of the meaning in language.






29. 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.






30. A fourteen - line poem - usually written in iambic pentameter - with a varied rhyme scheme. Two main types are Petrarchan (or Italian) and the Shakespearean (or English). A Petrarchan opens with an octave that states a proposition and ends with a ses






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






33. A wise saying - usually short and written.






34. Opposing elements or characters in a plot.






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






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






37. Simple - compound (conjunctions) - complex (subordination) - compound - complex (conjunctions and subordination).






38. A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect - as in I could sleep for a year or this book weighs a ton.






39. Deals with current or future development of technological advances. Examples are Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse - Five - George Orwell's 1984 - Aldous Huxley's Brave New World - and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.






40. 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.






41. The narrator shares the thoughts and feelings of one (or a few) character(s).






42. A repetition of the same sound in words close to one another






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






44. 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.






45. The overall feeling created by an author's use of words.






46. A humorous verse form of five anapestic (Composed of feet that are short - short - long or unaccented - unaccented - accented) lines with rhyme scheme of aabba.






47. The study of the orgin of words






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






49. 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






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