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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 reference to a familiar person - place - thing - or event






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






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






4. A literacy device in which the author jumps back in time in the chronology of narrative.






5. 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






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






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






8. 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






9. ' U






10. Persuasive writing.






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






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






13. A variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area.






14. 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.






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






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






17. A long narrative poem detailing a hero's deeds. Examples include The Aenied by Vergil - The Illiad and The Odyssey by Homer - Beowulf - Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes - War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - and Hiawath






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






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






20. The use of a word or phrase to mean the exact opposite of its literal or expected meaning. There are three types....Dramatic - Verbal - Situation.






21. 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






22. Specialized language used in a particular field or content area






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






24. 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






25. 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.






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






27. 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.






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






29. The main section of a long poem.






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






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






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






33. The study of the structure of words.






34. 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






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






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






37. 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






38. A contradictory statement that makes sense






39. A type of pun - or play on words - that results when two words become mixed up in the speaker's mind






40. A rhythmical pattern in verse that is made up of stressed and unstressed syllables.






41. 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






42. 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.






43. 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.






44. A short poem about personal feelings and emotions.






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






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






47. A story in which people (or things or actions) represent an idea or a generalization about life. Usually have a strong lesson or moral.






48. 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 .






49. A word that gives more information about a noun or pronoun. Ex. Sue runs very fast - very describes the ____ fast and gives information about how fast Sue runs.






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