English Finals Vocabulary

Question 1

Tragedy

Answer 1

A drama in which the central character, who is of noble stature, meets with great disaster or misfortune. The tragic hero’s downfall is usually the result of some combination of
· fate, or the idea of a predetermined destiny
· a character flaw

Question 2

Soliloquy

Answer 2

A lengthy speech in which a character, usually alone on stage, expresses his or her true thoughts or feelings
Soliloquies are not heard by other characters.

Question 3

Aside

Answer 3

A character briefly reveals his or her thoughts or feelings, sometimes actually addressing the audience, in a remark that is not heard by other characters

Question 4

Monologue

Answer 4

A lengthy speech by one person addressed to other characters

Question 5

Blank Verse

Answer 5

Unrhymed poetry written in iambic pentameter

Question 6

Meter

Answer 6

Poem’s rhythmical pattern

Question 7

Feet

Answer 7

Divisions of stressed/unstressed syllables

Question 8

Iamb

Answer 8

A foot with one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable: again

Question 9

Iambic Pentameter

Answer 9

Ten syllables, unstressed/stressed pattern

Question 10

Couplet

Answer 10

Two successive rhyming lines

Question 11

sonnet

Answer 11

14 line poem with a rhyme scheme

Question 12

allusion

Answer 12

An allusion is a passing reference to a familiar person, place, or thing drawn from history, the Bible, mythology, or literature.

Question 13

Simile

Answer 13

A figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between dissimilar things using “like” or “as.” Ex.“The fighter’s hands were like stone.”

Question 14

Metaphor

Answer 14

An implicit comparison in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else; one thing is compared to or identified with another, dissimilar thing in order to suggest something about it. Ex. All the world’s a stage.

Question 15

Personification

Answer 15

A figure of speech in which ideas or objects are described as having human qualities or personalities. Ex. “The engine coughed and then stopped.”

Question 16

foreshadowing

Answer 16

Foreshadowing is a purposeful hint placed in a work of literature to suggest what may occur later in the narrative.

Question 17

hyperbole

Answer 17

A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement. (The literal Greek meaning is “overshoot.”) Hyperboles often have a comic effect; however, a serious effect is also possible. Often, hyperbole produces irony. The opposite of hyperbole is understatement.

Question 18

imagery

Answer 18

The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions. On a physical level, imagery uses terms related to the five senses: visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory. On a broader and deeper level, however, one image can represent more than one thing. For example, a rose may present visual imagery while also representing the color in a woman’s cheeks and/or symbolizing some degree of perfection.

Question 19

irony

Answer 19

The incongruity or difference between reality and appearance or expectation and result.
Situational irony is the contrast between what is expected or intended and what actually occurs.
Dramatic irony occurs when the author makes the readers or audience aware of something that the character(s) are not.
Verbal irony is the contrast between what is said and what is meant.

Question 20

juxtaposition

Answer 20

When two contrasting things - ideas, words, or sentence elements - are placed next to each other for comparison, a juxtaposition occurs.

Question 21

motif

Answer 21

A motif is a repetition that tends to unify a work, such as a recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object, or image that appears throughout the piece.

Question 22

oxymoron

Answer 22

An oxymoron combines two contradictory words in one expression. The results of this combination are often unusual or thought provoking. For instance, if you praise a child for her “wild docility,” in essence you change the separate meanings of the words “wild” and “docility” and create a new, hybrid image.

Question 23

paradox

Answer 23

A statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity. Ex: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….”.

Question 24

parallelism

Answer 24

Also referred to as parallel construction or parallel structure, this term comes from Greek roots meaning “beside one another.” It refers to the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity. This can involve, but is not limited to, repetition of a grammatical element such as a preposition or verbal phrase. The effects of parallelism are numerous, but frequently they act as an organizing force to attract the reader’s attention, add emphasis and organization, or simply provide a musical rhythm.
The opening of Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities is an excellent example: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of believe, it was the epoch of incredulity….”)

Question 25

anaphora

Answer 25

A sub-type of parallelism, in which the exact repetition of words or phrases begins successive phrases or clauses. Ex: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of believe, it was the epoch of incredulity….”

Question 26

pun

Answer 26

A pun is a play on words. A pun is created by using a word that has two different meanings, or using two different words with similar meanings, for a playful effect.

Question 27

repetition

Answer 27

The duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language, such as a sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern.

Question 28

symbol

Answer 28

Generally, anything that represents itself and stands for something else. Usually a symbol is something concrete – such as an object, action, character, or scene – that represents something more abstract. However, symbols and symbolism can be much more complex. One system classifies symbols into three categories:

(1) natural symbols are objects and occurrences from nature to symbolize ideas commonly associated with them (dawn symbolizing hope or a new beginning, a rose symbolizing love, a tree symbolizing knowledge).
(2) conventional symbols are those that have been invested with meaning by a group (religious symbols such as a cross or Star of David; national symbols, such as a flag or an eagle; or group symbols, such as a skull and crossbones for pirates or the scale of justice for lawyers).
(3) literary symbols are sometimes also conventional in the sense that they are found in a variety of works and are more generally recognized.

Question 29

antithesis

Answer 29

juxtaposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction
“Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” (Julius Caesar, III, ii)

Question 30

chiasmus

Answer 30

two corresponding pairs arranged in a parallel inverse order

“Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (Macbeth, I, i)

Question 31

parallelism

Answer 31

similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses3
“And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determinèd to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.” (Richard III, I, i)

Question 32

CRAAP

Answer 32

currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, purpose

REMEMBER: .org isn’t more credible than .com automatically

Question 33

links

Answer 33

get rid of https://

Question 34

annotation for pages; paragraphs

Answer 34

p./pp.; par./pars.

Question 35

order of stuff in citation:

Answer 35

Author.
Title of source.
Title of container,
Other contributors,
Version,
Number,
Publisher,
Publication date,
Location.
Date Accessed.

Question 36

spacing rules

Answer 36

double space citations,

indent second line and subsequent by 0.5

Question 37

containers are always in

Answer 37

italics

Question 38

pseudonyms citations

Answer 38

real last name, real first name [ published as/see also/blank space here pseudonym]
examples:
Christie, Agatha [Mary Westmacott].
Irving, Washington [published as Knickerbocker, Diedrich].