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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 time and place in which a story occurs.






2. A lesson a work of literature is teaching.






3. 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.






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






5. 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






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






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






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






9. A long narrative poem detailing a hero's deeds. Examples include The Aenied by Vergil - The Illiad and The Odyssey by Homer - Beowulf - Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes - War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - and Hiawath






10. 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 -






11. 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.






12. 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.'






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






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






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






16. 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.






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






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






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






20. A stanza made up of two rhyming lines.






21. The main section of a long poem.






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






23. 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






24. Opposing elements or characters in a plot.






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






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






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






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






29. 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






30. 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






31. 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.






32. The story is told by someone outside the story.






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






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






35. ' U U






36. 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.






37. 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.






38. A short poem about personal feelings and emotions.






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






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






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






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






43. The story is told from the point of view of one character.






44. A phrase that consists of two contradictory terms






45. 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






46. The study of the structure of sentences.






47. 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






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






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






50. Unrhymed verse - often occurring in iambic pentameter.