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






2. An extended fictional prose narrative.






3. A poem that is a mournful lament for the dead. Examples include William Shakespeare's 'Eligy' from Cymbeline - Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Requiem -' and Alfred Lord Tennysone's 'In Memoriam.'






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






5. A reference to a familiar person - place - thing - or event






6. Language that shows disrespect for others or something sacred.






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






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






9. 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.






10. The use of sound words to suggest meaning - as in buzz - click - or vroom.






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






12. A turn from the general audience to address a specific group of persons (or a personified abstraction) who is present of absent. For example - in a recent performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet - Hamlet turned to the audience and spoke directly to one w






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






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






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






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






17. The narrator shares the thoughts and feelings of all the characters.






18. Persuasive writing.






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






20. The main section of a long poem.






21. 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 .






22. Rhyme that occurs within a line of verse.






23. A phrase that consists of two contradictory terms






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






25. The purpose of a particular action differs greatly from the result






26. 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.






27. ' U






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






29. 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






30. 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






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






32. 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.






33. 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






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






35. 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






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






37. A metric line of poetry. Its name is based on the kind and number of feet composing it ('foot').






38. Rhyming of the ends of lines of verse.






39. A word which names a person - place or thing. Ex. boy - river - friend - Mexico - triangle - day - school - truth - university - idea - John F. Kennedy - movie






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






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






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






43. 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.






44. 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






45. 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






46. A suspenseful story that deals with a puzzling crime. Examples include Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Murder in Rue Morgue' and Charles Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood.






47. A person's account of his or hew own life.






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






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






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