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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. The most specific or direct meaning of a word - in contrast to its figurative or associated meanings.






2. The study of the orgin of words






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






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






5. 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






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






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






8. Informal language used by a particular group of people among themselves.






9. 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.






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






11. 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






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






13. 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






14. 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






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






16. The telling of a story.






17. 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






18. 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.






19. 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






20. 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






21. A lesson a work of literature is teaching.






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






23. The perspective from which the story is told - four choices: first person; 3rd person (dramatic - objective); 3rd person omniscient; 3rd person limited omniscient.






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






25. Unrhymed verse - often occurring in iambic pentameter.






26. 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.






27. 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 -






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






29. The regular or random occurrence of sound in poetry.






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






31. ' U






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






33. 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.






34. Old - fashioned words that are no longer used in common speech - such as thee - thy - and thou.






35. 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.






36. A person who opposes or competes with the main character (protagonist); often the villain in the story.






37. 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.






38. A group of words containing a subject and a predicate and forming part of a compound or complex sentence.






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






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






41. The main section of a long poem.






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






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






44. 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.






45. An author's choice of words based on their clearness - conciseness - effectiveness - and authenticity.






46. 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






47. 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






48. The multiple use of a word - phrase - or idea for emphasis or rhythmic effect.






49. A brief fictional prose narrative. Examples include Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery -' Washington Irving's 'Rip van Winkle' D.H. Lawrence's 'The Horse Dealer's Daughter -' Arthur Conan Doyle's 'Hound of the Baskervilles -' and Dorothy Parker's 'Big Bl






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