AP Lang

Question 1

Abstract

Answer 1

dictionreferstowordsthatdescribeconcepts rather than concrete images (ideas and qualities rather than observable or specific things, people, or places.words create no “mental picture” or any other imagined sensations for readers. emotion

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

brief or indirect reference to a person, place, event, or passage in a work of literature or the Bible assumed to be sufficiently well known to be recognized by the reader.

Question 3

Analogy

Answer 3

a comparison between two things in which the more complex is explained in terms of the more simple.
“Last year’s profile of the stock index looks like a roller-coaster ride at your local amusement park.”

Question 4

Anaphora

Answer 4

he repetition of introductory words or phrases for effect.

Question 5

Anecdote

Answer 5

a short entertaining account of some happening, frequently personal or biographical used to bring humor or to illustrate a particular characteristic or trait.

Question 6

Antithesis

Answer 6

opposition or contrast emphasized by parallel structure.“A man desires the satisfaction of his desires; a woman desires the condition of desiring.”

Question 7

Aphorism

Answer 7

a brief saying embodying a moral; a concise statement of a principle or precept given in pointed words.“Imitation is suicide.”

Question 8

Argumentation

Answer 8

writing that attempts to prove the validity of a proposition or an idea by presenting reasoned arguments; persuasive writing

Question 9

Apostrophe

Answer 9

a strategy in which an absent person, inanimate object (the sun, for example), or abstract being
(Death) is addressed directly.

Question 10

Assonance

Answer 10

repetition of vowel sounds between different consonants; e.g. Early in the day, the neighs began to fade.

Question 11

Asyndeton

Answer 11

Commas used (with no conjunction) to separate a series of words. The parts are emphasized
equally when the conjunction is omitted; in addition, the use of commas with no intervening conjunction
speeds up the flow of the sentence. This is a form of parallelism.“Like Dave, he asked nothing, gave nothing, expected nothing

Question 12

Cacophony

Answer 12

harsh, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or prose; the opposite of euphony:
“The powers of prunes are prudent to provide potent pallitive prophylaxis

Question 13

Caricature

Answer 13

descriptive writing that greatly exaggerates a specific feature of a person’s appearance or a facet of personality; used for comic effect or criticism

Question 14

Chiasmus

Answer 14

a syntactical structure by which the order of the terms in the first of two parallel clauses is reversed in the second. This may involve a repetition of the same words (“Pleasure’s a sin, and sometimes sin’s a pleasure” –Byron) or just a reversed parallel between two corresponding pairs of ideas.

Question 15

Colloquialism

Answer 15

words or phrases (including slang) used in everyday conversation and informal writing which is usually inappropriate in formal writing, e.g. y’all, ain’t, guys, stuff, kind of, etc..

Question 16

Connotation

Answer 16

implied or suggested meaning of a word because of its association in the reader’s mind. These are often classified as negative, neutral, or positive: Strong-willed (positive) Pig-headed (negative)

Question 17

Concrete Language

Answer 17

words that describe specific, observable things, people, or

places, rather than ideas or qualities.

Question 18

Consonance

Answer 18

repetition of identical consonant sounds within two or more words in close proximity, as in boost/best

Question 19

Conundrum

Answer 19

a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun; it may also be a paradox or difficult problem: Which
came first, the chicken or the egg?

Question 20

Deduction

Answer 20

a form of reasoning using syllogism where the author begins with a generalization, then applies the generalization to a specific case or cases

1. The picture is above the desk.
2. The desk is above the floor.
3. Therefore, the picture is above the floor.

Question 21

Denotation

Answer 21

the literal or obvious meaning of a word (dictionary definition)

Question 22

Didactic

Answer 22

writing whose purpose is to instruct or to teach.

Question 23

Discourse

Answer 23

spoken or written language, including literary works; the four traditionally classified modes of discourse are description, exposition, narration, and persuasion.

Question 24

Dissonance

Answer 24

inconsistancy/disagreement btw belief n actions

Question 25

Ellipsis

Answer 25

any omitted part of speech that is easily understood in context, e.g. in the sentence from Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, “And so he went on, and the people groaning and crying and saying amen:…” there is an omitted/understood “were” between “people” and “groaning.”

Question 26

Epistrophe

Answer 26

he repetition of the same word or groups of words at the ends of phrases, clauses, or sentences. “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child;”

Question 27

Euphony

Answer 27

a succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose

Question 28

Explication

Answer 28

the art of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text.

Question 29

Exposition

Answer 29

designed to convey information or explain what is difficult to understand through the use of facts, reasons, or examples; one of the four modes of discourse.

Question 30

Extended Metaphor

Answer 30

a sustained comparison. The extended metaphor is developed throughout a piece of writing.

Question 31

Imagery

Answer 31

lively descriptions which impress the images of things upon the mind using one or more of the five senses; figures of speech.

Question 32

Hyperbole

Answer 32

deliberate exaggeration in order to create humor or emphasis:
He was so hungry he could have eaten a horse.
“I sat mindless and eternal on the kitchen floor, stony of head, and solemn.”

Question 33

Induction

Answer 33

a form of reasoning using syllogism, which works from a body of fact to the formulation or a generalization; opposite to deduction; frequently used as the principle form of reasoning in science and history.

1. Most of the jellybeans in my hand are red.
2. They were taken from this jar, and I mixed them up well before I took them out.
3. So most of the jellybeans in this jar are red.

Question 34

Interior Monologue

Answer 34

character’s iner thought

Question 35

Inversion

Answer 35

reversing the customary order of elements (SVO) in a sentence or phrase.

Question 36

Jargon

Answer 36

the special language of a profession or group. The term usually has pejorative associations, with the implication that jargon is evasive, tedious, and unintelligible to outsiders.

Question 37

Juxtaposition

Answer 37

a type of zeugma—putting together two contrasting elements that are so unlike that the effect is surprising, witty, or even startling
“Neither the sun nor death can be regarded steadily.”:

Question 38

Lending Credence

Answer 38

making it more believable

Question 39

Litotes/understatement

Answer 39

a statement that says less than what it means.

“We know that poverty is unpleasant.”

Question 40

Loose Sentence

Answer 40

a simple sentence with a string of details added to itBells rang, filling the air with their clangor, startling pigeons into flight from every belfry,
bringing people into the streets to hear the news.

Question 41

Metaphor

Answer 41

a figure of speech in which one thing is compared to another by being spoken of as thought it
were that thing: e.g. “a sea of troubles.”
“Time is but a stream that I go a’fishing in.”

Question 42

Metonymy

Answer 42

a figure of speech that replaces the name of an object, person, or idea with something with which it is associated:
The red, white, and blue came to save the day. (The red, white, and blue refers to the United States of America.)

Question 43

Moral

Answer 43

the lesson drawn from a fictional or nonfictional story. It can also mean something that conforms
to a standard of righteous behavior.

Question 44

Motif

Answer 44

the main thematic element or subject of a work that is elaborated on in the development of the piece; a repeated pattern or idea.

Question 45

Objectivity

Answer 45

an impersonal presentation of events and characters. It is an author’s attempt to remove
himself or herself from an subjective, personal involvement in a story. Hard news journalism is frequently prized for its objectivity, although even fictional stories can be told without an author rendering personal judgment.

Question 46

Onomatopoeia

Answer 46

the use of words that sound like what they mean, such as “hiss,” “buzz,” “slam,” and
“boom.”
“He did not steal for the joy of it, but because of the clamor of his stomach.”

Question 47

Oversimplification

Answer 47

a fallacy in which the author obscures or denies the complexity of the issues in an argument.

Question 48

Oxymoron

Answer 48

a figure of speech in which contradictory terms or ideas are combined: e.g. “thunderous silence.” “sensual coldness.”—Helen Keller

Question 49

Pacing

Answer 49

where a passage speeds up or slows down; this is achieved through sentence structure (syntax),
repetition, and punctuation.

Question 50

Parable

Answer 50

a short story from which a lesson may be drawn

Question 51

Paradox

Answer 51

a statement which seems self-contradictory, but which may be true in fact.“I hated him for making me stop hating him.”

Question 52

Parallelism

Answer 52

ny structure which brings together parallel elements, be these nouns, adjectives, verbs,
adverbs, or larger structures to show that the ideas in the parts or sentences are equal in importance. The prince’s strength is also his weakness; his self-reliance is also isolation.”
“However our eyes may be dazzled with show, or our ears dazzled with sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest darken our
understanding, the simple voice of nature and of reason will say it is right.”

Question 53

Pedantic

Answer 53

a term used to describe writing that borders on lecturing. It is scholarly and academic and often overly difficult and distant.

Question 54

Polysyndeton

Answer 54

a sentence which uses and or another conjunction to separate the items in a series.
Polysyndeton appear in the form of X and Y and Z,

Question 55

Rhetoric

Answer 55

THE ART OF USING WORDS EFFECTIVELY IN WRITING OR SPEAKING SO AS TO INFLUENCE OR PERSUADE

Question 56

Protagonist

Answer 56

main character

Question 57

Rhetorical modes

Answer 57

exposition, description, narration, argumentation

Question 58

Rhetorical Question

Answer 58

a question asked for rhetorical effect to emphasize a point, no answer being expected. Sometimes, an author will answer the question himself or herself in order to drive the point home even more forcefully.

Question 59

Sarcasm

Answer 59

harsh, caustic personal remarks to or about someone; less subtle than irony.

Question 60

Satire

Answer 60

use of ridicule, sarcasm, irony, etc. to expose vices, abuses, etc.

Question 61

Simile

Answer 61

a figure of speech that uses like, as, or as if to make a direct comparison between two essentially different objects, actions, or qualities.
“The sky looked like an artist’s canvas.”

Question 62

Speaker

Answer 62

the voice of a work; an author may speak as himself or herself or a fictitious persona.

Question 63

Spin

Answer 63

propaganda w/deceptive persuaion

Question 64

Subjectivity

Answer 64

judgement shaped by opinions and feelings instead of outside influences

Question 65

Syllogism

Answer 65

a form of reasoning in which two premises are made and a conclusion is drawn from them. There is a major premise and a minor premise, from which a conclusion may be drawn using deductive or inductive reasoning.

Question 66

Synecdoche

Answer 66

a figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent a whole, such as using “boards” to mean a stage or “wheels” to mean a car: All hands on deck.

Question 67

Syntax

Answer 67

the grammatical structure of a sentence; the arrangement of words in a sentence. Syntax includes both the length of the sentence as well as the kind of sentence

Question 68

Transition

Answer 68

a word or phrase that links one idea to the next and carries the reader from sentence to
sentence and paragraph to paragraph.

Question 69

Voice

Answer 69

refers to the total “sound” of an author’s style. The author’s unique way of expressing himself or
herself. May also refer to the relationship between the sentence’s subject and verb

Question 70

Zeugma

Answer 70

verb/adj applies to more than one noun

john lost his coat and temper

Question 71

vrbal irony

Answer 71

a method of expression, often humorous or sarcastic, in which the intended meaning of the
words is the opposite of their usual meaning: e.g. saying that a cold, windy, rainy day is “lovely.”

Question 72

situational irony

Answer 72

when something happens as a result of or in reaction to something else in a way that is
contrary to what would be expected or acceptable. A great difference in the purpose of an action and its result. It usually includes a cruel twist, emphasizing that human beings are enmeshed in forces beyond their comprehension and control, showing that there is a larger purpose or force at work.