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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 person's account of his or hew own life.






2. The perspective from which a story is told.






3. A contradictory statement that makes sense






4. Fiction that is intended to frighten - unsettle - or scare the reader. Often overlaps with fantasy and science fiction. Examples include Stephen King's The Shining - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - and Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes.






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






6. 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






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






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






9. 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.






10. 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






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






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






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






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






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






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






17. 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.






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






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






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






21. 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






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






23. 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.






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






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






26. A division of poetry named for the number of lines it contains...Couplet: Two - lines - Triplet: Three - lines - Quatrain: Four - lines - Quintet: Five - lines - Sestet: Six- lines - Septet: Seven - lines - Octave: Eight - lines.






27. 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.






28. 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






29. The main character or hero of a written work.






30. The study of the meaning in language.






31. 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






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






33. 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






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






35. Repetition of the final consonant sound in words containing different vowels






36. A wise saying - usually short and written.






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






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






39. A story in which people (or things or actions) represent an idea or a generalization about life. Usually have a strong lesson or moral.






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






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






42. 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






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






44. 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.






45. 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






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






47. 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






48. A stanza made up of two rhyming lines.






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






50. 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.






Can you answer 50 questions in 15 minutes?



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