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MCAT > English Midterm > Flashcards

English Midterm Flashcards

1
Q

Ballad

A

A song or poem that tells a lively or tragic story in simple language using rhyming four-line stanzas and a set meter

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2
Q

Elegy

A

A poem of lamentation memorializing the dead or contemplating some nuance of life’s melancholy

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3
Q

Diction

A

An author’s or character’s distinctive choice of words and style of expression

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4
Q

Satire

A

An artistic critique, sometimes heated, on some aspect of human immorality or absurdity

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5
Q

Simile

A

A direct comparison of two dissimilar things using the words like or as

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6
Q

Synecdoche

A

A figure of speech that uses a piece of part of a thing to represent the thing in its entirety.

For example, in the biblical saying that man doesn’t live by bread alone, bread stands for the larger concept of food or physical sustenance.

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7
Q

Connotation

A

The associations a words carries beyond its literal meaning. Connotations are formed by the context of the word’s popular usage.

For example green aside from the color connotes money

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8
Q

Imagery

A

Visually descriptive or figurative language, esp. in a literary work:

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9
Q

Situational Irony

A

A situation portrayed in a poem when what occurs is the opposite or very different from what’s expected to occur.

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10
Q

Hyperbole (overstatement)

A

A type of figurative speech that uses verbal exaggeration to make a point

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11
Q

Prosody

A

The analysis of a poem’s rhythm and metrical structures

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12
Q

Foot

A

The smallest unit of measure in a poetic meter.

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13
Q

Anapestic Meter

A

A meter using feet with two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable

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14
Q

Pyrrhic Foot

A

A poetic foot characterized by two unstressed syllables

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15
Q

Monometer

A

A poetic meter comprised of one poetic foot

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16
Q

Tetrameter

A

A poetic meter that contains four feet in each line

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17
Q

Heptameter

A

A poetic meter that consists of seven feet in each line

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18
Q

Couplet

A

Two lines of poetry forming one unit of meaning Couplets are often rhymed, strung together without a break, and share the same meter

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19
Q

Run-on-line

A

A line of poetry that, when read, doesn’t come to a natural conclusion where the line breaks

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20
Q

Assonance

A

A repetition of vowel sounds or patterns in neighboring words.

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21
Q

Triplet (tercet)

A

A tercet of three rhymed lines

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22
Q

Haiku

A

A poetic form containing 17 syllables in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables each.

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23
Q

Ode

A

An elevated, formal lyric poem often written in ceremony to someone or to an abstract subject.

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24
Q

Tone

A

The author’s attitude towards his/her characters of subject matter.

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25
Q

Pastoral

A

A variety of poem in which life in the countryside, mainly among shepherds, is glorified and idealized.

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26
Q

Metaphor

A

A close comparison of two dissimilar thing that creates a fusion of identity between the things that are compared.

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27
Q

Personification

A

A figure of speech in which a writer ascribes human traits or behavior to something inhuman.

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28
Q

Denotation

A

The literal meaning of a wordA

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29
Q

Symbol

A

An object, image, character, or action that suggests meaning beyond the everyday literal level

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30
Q

Understatement

A

A purposeful underestimation of something used to emphasize its actual magnitude.

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31
Q

Paradox

A

Seemingly contradictory statements that, when closely examined, have a deeper, sometimes complicated, meaning

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32
Q

Scansion

A

The process of determining the metrical pattern of a line of poetry by marking its stresses and feet.

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33
Q

Iamb

A

A poetic foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

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34
Q

Dactylic Meter

A

A meter in which the foot contains a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables.

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35
Q

Free Verse

A

Poetry in which the poet doesn’t adhere to a preset metrical or rhyme scheme. Free verse has become increasingly prevalent since the nineteenth century, when it was used first

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36
Q

Dimeter

A

A poetic meter comprised of two poetic feet.

37
Q

Pentameter

A

A poetic meter that consists of five feet in each line.

38
Q

Octameter

A

A poetic meter that consists of eight feet in each line.

39
Q

Caesura

A

A pause, usually in the middle of a line, that marks a kind of rhythmic division.

40
Q

Rhyme

A

The echoing repetition of sounds in the end syllables of words, often (though not always) at the end of a line of poetry.

41
Q

Onomatopoeia

A

The use of words that imitate the sounds they refer to, such as buzz or pop.

42
Q

Lyric

A

A short poem that is usually sung to a musical instrument and depicts the intense personal emotions of the poet.

43
Q

Dramatic Monolgue

A

A poem in which a single character is speaking and addresses others characters to the reader.

44
Q

Quatrain

A

A four line stanza.

45
Q

Figure of Speech

A

A technique of using language to describe one thing in terms of another, often comparing two unlike objects such as the sun and the face of the beloved, to condense and heighten the effect of language, particularly the effect of imagery or symbolism in a poem.

46
Q

Metonymy

A

A figure of speech that uses an identifying emblem of closely associated object to represent another object.

For example, the phrase the power of the purse makes little sense literally, but in the metonymical sense, purse stands for money.

47
Q

Apostrophe

A

A figure of speech in which a writer directly addresses an unseen person, force, or personified idea.

48
Q

Image

A

A sensory impression created by language. Not all images are visual pictures; an image can appeal to any of the five senses, emotions, or the intellect.

49
Q

Verbal Irony

A

A statement in which the stated meaning is very different (sometimes opposite) from the implied meaning.

50
Q

Terza Rima

A

A tercet fixed form featuring the interlocking rhyme scheme aba, bcb, cdc, ded, etc.

51
Q

Rhythm

A

The sequence of stressed and unstressed sounds in a poem.

52
Q

Meter

A

A measure of verse, based on regular patterns of sound.

53
Q

Trochee

A

A poetic foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable.

54
Q

Spondee

A

A poetic foot characterized by two stressed syllables.

55
Q

Sonnet

A

A poem of 14 lines of iambic pentameter in a recognizable pattern of rhyme. Sonnets contain a volta or turn in which the last lines resolve or change direction from the controlling idea of the preceding line.

56
Q

Trimeter

A

A poetic meter that contains three feet in each line.

57
Q

Hexameter

A

A poetic meter that consists of six feet in each line

58
Q

Refrain

A

A line or stanza that is repeated at regular intervals in a poem or song.

59
Q

End-Stopped Line

A

A line that ends with a full stop or period.

60
Q

Alliteration

A

The repetition of the initial consonant sounds of a sequence of words.

61
Q

Stanza

A

A unit of two or more lines, set off by a space, often sharing the same rhythm and meter.

62
Q

Exposition

A

The narrative presentation of necessary information about the character, setting, or character’s history provided to make the reader care what happens to the characters in the story.

63
Q

Conflict/Rising Action

A

The central problem in a story. Source of tension between protagonist and antagonist.

64
Q

Climax

A

The narrative’s turning point in a struggle between opposing forces.

65
Q

Falling Action

A

The events following the climax and leading up to the resolution. These events reveal how the protagonist has been impacted by and dealt with the preceding conflicts of the story.

66
Q

Denouement/resolution

A

The period after a story’s climax when conflicts are addressed and/or resolved. (falling action and resolution included)

67
Q

Character

A

The depiction of human beings (and nonhumans) within a story.

68
Q

Plot

A

The arrangement of incidents in a story, with each incident building on the next in a series of causes and effects.

69
Q

Setting

A

The time and place where a story occurs.

70
Q

Theme

A

The central or underlying meanings of a literary work.

71
Q

Motivation

A

A character’s reason for doing something.

72
Q

Points of view

A

The perspective from which the story is told to the reader.

73
Q

First person (participant) Narrator

A

The story is narrated by a character in the story, identified by the use of the pronoun I or the plural first person, we.

74
Q

Omniscient POV

A

A third person narrator who observes the thoughts and describes the actions of multiple characters in the story.

75
Q

Limited omniscient POV

A

A third person narrator who enters into the mind of only one character at a time.

76
Q

Objective POV

A

The story is told by an observer who relates only facts, providing neither commentary nor insight into the character’s thoughts or actions.

77
Q

Allegory

A

A story in which major elements such as characters and settings represent universal truths or morals in a one-to-one correspondence.

78
Q

Style

A

The way in which something is said, done, expressed, or performed.

79
Q

Parable

A

A short narrative that illustrates a lessor using comparison to familiar characters and events.

80
Q

Allusion

A

A reference to another work of art or literature, or to a person, place, or event outside the text.

81
Q

Irony

A

A tone characterized by a distance between what occurs and what is expected to occur, or between what is said and what is meant.

82
Q

Narrative Poem

A

A poem that tells a story.

83
Q

Novel

A

A long fictional work.

84
Q

Short story

A

A brief fictional narrative that attempts to dramatize or illustrate the effect or meaning of a single incident or small group of incidents in the life of a single character or small group of characters.

85
Q

Protagonist

A

The main figure (or principle actor) in a work of literature.

86
Q

Antagonist

A

A character in conflict with the protagonist.

87
Q

Deus ex machina

A

Latin for “God from the machine”; a literary device, where a conflict is resolved by unforeseen and often far-fetched means.

88
Q

Epiphany

A

A sudden realization or new understanding achieved by a character or speaker.

89
Q

Flashback

A

The device of moving back in time to a point before the primary action of the story.

MCAT (3 decks)

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