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






2. 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






3. 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.






4. A wise saying - usually short and written.






5. Rhyme that occurs within a line of verse.






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






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






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






9. U U '






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






17. The writer says one thing and means another






18. 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






19. 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.






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






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






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






23. The study of the structure of words.






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






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






26. The study of the structure of sentences.






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






28. The perspective from which a story is told.






29. Opposing elements or characters in a plot.






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






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






32. 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






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






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






35. 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






36. A narrative technique in which the main story is composed primarily for the purpose of organizing a set of shorter stories - each of which is a story within a story. Examples include Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales - Ovid's Metamorphoses - and Em






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






38. 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






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






40. 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.






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






42. 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.






43. A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect - as in I could sleep for a year or this book weighs a ton.






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






45. The study of the meaning in language.






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






47. 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.






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






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






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