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. A story about a person's life written by another person.






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






3. The specialized language of a particular group or culture. Ex. in the field of education...rubric - tuning protocol - and deskilling.






4. 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.






5. A phrase that consists of two contradictory terms






6. 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.






7. 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.






8. 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 .






9. The study of the structure of sentences.






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






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






12. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






18. The writer says one thing and means another






19. A type of Japanese poem that is written in 17 syllables with three lines of five - seven - and five syllables - respectively. Expresses a single thought.






20. How the author uses words - phrases - and sentences to form ideas.






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






22. 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.






23. The telling of a story.






24. Opposing elements or characters in a plot.






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






26. 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 -






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






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






29. 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






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






31. A method an author uses to let readers know more about the characters and their personal traits.






32. ' U






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






34. The perspective from which a story is told.






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






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






37. The study of the structure of words.






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






39. Expressions that are usually accepted in informal situations or regions - such as 'wicked awesome.'






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






41. Unrhymed verse - often occurring in iambic pentameter.






42. 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






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






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






45. 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.






46. A figure of speech in which a comparison is implied but not stated - such as 'This winter is a bear.'






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






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






49. 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.






50. A novel set in the western U.S. featuring the experiences of cowboys and frontiersmen. Examples include Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage and Trail Driver - Larry McMurty's Lonesome Dove - Conrad Richter's The Sea of Grass - Fran Striker's The Lo