Final Exam Terms

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

Repetition of the same or very similar consonant sounds usually at the beginnings of words that are close together in a poem.

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

Reference to a statement, a person, a person, a place, or an event from literature, history, religion, mythology, etc.

Question 3

Apostrophe

Answer 3

Figure of speech in which the poet addresses an absent person, abstract idea, or thing.

Question 4

Aside

Answer 4

Words that are spoken by a character in a play to the audience or to another character, but that are not supposed to be overheard by others onstage.

Question 5

Assonance

Answer 5

Repetition of similar vowel sounds that are followed by different consonant sounds, especially in words that are close together in a poem.

Question 6

Autobiography

Answer 6

An account of the writer’s own life.

Question 7

Biography

Answer 7

An account of a person’s life, written or told by another person.

Question 8

Blank Verse

Answer 8

Poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Question 9

Character

Answer 9

Person in a story, poem, or play.

Question 10

Climax

Answer 10

Moment of great emotional intensity or suspense in a plot.

Question 11

Comedy

Answer 11

In general, a story that ends happily.

Question 12

Comic Relief

Answer 12

Comic scene or event that breaks up a serious play or narrative.

Question 13

Conflict

Answer 13

Struggle or clash between opposing characters or forces.

Question 14

Couplet

Answer 14

Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme.

Question 15

Courtly Love

Answer 15

A medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry.

Question 16

Dialogue

Answer 16

The conversation between characters in a story or play.

Question 17

Diction

Answer 17

A writer’s or speaker’s choice of words.

Question 18

Drama

Answer 18

Story that is written to be acted for a audience.

Question 19

Dramatic Monologue

Answer 19

A poem in which a speaker address one or more silent listeners, often reflecting on a specific problem or situation.

Question 20

Exposition

Answer 20

Type of writing that explains, gives information, defines, or clarifies an idea.

Question 21

Flashback

Answer 21

a scene in a movie, novel, etc., set in a time earlier than the main story.

Question 22

Foil

Answer 22

Creating a character to explain the opposite character.

Question 23

Foreshadowing

Answer 23

The use of clues to hint at events that will occur later in the plot.

Question 24

Free Verse

Answer 24

A verse that does not follow a fixed metrical pattern.

Question 25

Genre

Answer 25

Category of literature (drama, poetry, nonfiction, fiction)

Question 26

Haiku

Answer 26

Japanese verse form consisting of three lines and usually seventeen syllables.

Question 27

Hyperbole

Answer 27

Figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotions or to create a comedic effect.

Question 28

Iambic Pentameter

Answer 28

A line of poetry that contains five iambs.

Question 29

Imagery

Answer 29

Language that appeals to the senses.

Question 30

Irony

Answer 30

Contrast between expectation and reality.

Question 31

Lyric Poem

Answer 31

A form of poetry that expresses personal emotions or feelings in first person.

Question 32

Metaphor

Answer 32

Figure of speech that makes comparisons between two unlike things, without using like, as, resembles, or than.

Question 33

Meter

Answer 33

A stressed and unstressed syllabic pattern in a verse or within the lines of a poem.

Question 34

Extended Metaphor

Answer 34

A comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem.

Question 35

Mood

Answer 35

What we get out of the story from the author's tone and diction.

Question 36

Nonfiction

Answer 36

Prose writing that deals with real people, things, events, and places.

Question 37

Onomatopoeia

Answer 37

The use of a word sound that imitates or suggests its meaning.

Question 38

Oxymoron

Answer 38

When two contradictory words are together in one phrase.

Question 39

Personification

Answer 39

A kind of metaphor in which a nonhuman things are given human qualities and characteristics.

Question 40

Plot

Answer 40

Describes the events that make up a story or the main part of a story.

Question 41

Point of View

Answer 41

The angle of considering things, which shows us the opinion, or feelings of the individuals involved in a situation.

Question 42

Protagonist

Answer 42

The leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text.

Question 43

Pun

Answer 43

A play on words.

Question 44

Quatrain

Answer 44

A type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines.

Question 45

Refrain

Answer 45

A verse, a line, a set, or a group of some lines that appears at the end of stanza, or appears where a poem divides into different sections.

Question 46

Rhyme

Answer 46

A repetition of similar sounds (or the same sound) in two or more words, most often in the final syllables of lines in poems and songs.

Question 47

Setting

Answer 47

The time, place and general environment of a story.

Question 48

Simile

Answer 48

Figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things, using a word such as, like, as, resembles, or than.

Question 49

Soliloquy

Answer 49

Thoughts spoken aloud by a character who is alone on stage.

Question 50

Sonnet

Answer 50

Fourteen line lyric poem that is usually written in iambic pentameter and that has one of several rhymes schemes.

Question 51

Stanza

Answer 51

Group of consecutive lines in a poem that form a single unit.

Question 52

Style

Answer 52

The literary element that describes the ways that the author uses words.