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






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






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






4. 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






5. 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.






6. The study of the meaning in language.






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






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






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






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






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






12. 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






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






14. Two or more words in sequence that form a syntactic unit that is less than a complete sentence.






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






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






17. The role of context in the interpretation of meaning.






18. A person or being in a narrative






19. 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.






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






21. 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.






22. 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.






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






24. 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.






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






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






27. A stanza made up of two rhyming lines.






28. 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






29. A comparison of two unlike things - usually including the word like or as.






30. The writer says one thing and means another






31. Literature that makes fun of social conventions or conditions - usually to evoke change.






32. ' U U






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






34. 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.






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






36. A narrative that is made up of fantastic characters and creatures - such as witches - goblins - and fairies - and usually begins with the phrase 'Once upon a time...' Examples include Rapunzel - Cinderella - Sleeping Beauty - and Little Red Riding Ho






37. 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






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






39. The study of the structure of words.






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






41. 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.






42. 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.






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






44. 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 .






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






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






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






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






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






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