Literature (High School)

Question 0

Alliteration

Answer 0

Repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of two or more words in close proximity.

The fair breeze blew; the white foam flew

Question 1

Accent

Answer 1

Emphasis given to a syllable or to syllables of a word; used primarily with reference to poetry and also used for the mark (‘) that shows this emphasis.

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

Offhand reference to a famous figure or event in literature or history.

He opened a Pandora’s box.

Question 3

Autobiography

Answer 3

Story of a person’s life written by him- or herself.

Question 4

Ballad

Answer 4

Verse form that presents in simple story form a single dramatic or exciting episode and stresses such feelings as love, courage, patriotism, and loyalty.

Question 5

Biography

Answer 5

Story of a person’s life written by someone else.

Question 6

Climax

Answer 6

High point in the telling of a story, be it in fictional, poetic, or dramatic form.

Question 7

Comedy

Answer 7

Light form of drama that aims to amuse and/or instruct us and that ends happily.

All’s well that ends well.

Question 8

Dialogue

Answer 8

Written conversation between people in a play

Question 9

Elegy

Answer 9

Lyric poem expressing a poet’s ideas concerning death or the end of something.

Question 10

Epic

Answer 10

Long poem that tells a story about noble people and their adventures centering around one character who is the hero.

Question 11

Epithet

Answer 11

Word, such as an adjective, or phrase that effectively identifies a significant quality of the noun it describes.

Alexander the Great

Question 12

Essay

Answer 12

Prose write that can be recognized by its treatment of any topic, no matter how unimportant, and by its approach–formal (containing an analysis with a moral) or informal (revealing the personality of the author through his or her humor, bias, and style).

Question 13

Figure of speech

Answer 13

Expression used to appeal to the reader’s emotions and imagination by presenting words in unusual meaning or context.

My love’s like a red, red rose…

Question 14

Foot

Answer 14

Certain number of syllables making up a unit in a verse of poetry

Question 15

Image

Answer 15

Figure of speech, especially a simile or a metaphor

Question 16

Inversion

Answer 16

Reversal of the normal order of words in a sentence.

A king of men am I.

Question 17

Irony

Answer 17

Figure of speech in which the writer or speaker uses words meaning the exact opposite of what he really thinks.

In ‘Julius Caesar’, Antony attacks Brutus with the words, “Brutus in an honorable man.”

Question 18

Limerick

Answer 18

Jingle in verse containing five lines, with lines 1, 2, and 5 rhyming and lines 3 and 4 rhyming.

Question 19

Lyric

Answer 19

Short poem expressing deep emotion in highly melodic and imaginative verse.

Question 20

Metaphor

Answer 20

Figure of speech that compares two things, or a person and a thing, by using a quality of one applied to the other. ‘Like’ or ‘as’ is omitted.

All the world is a stage.

Question 21

Meter

Answer 21

Rhythm patterns in verse

Question 22

Myth

Answer 22

Story of unknown origin, religious in character, that tries to interpret the natural world, usually in terms of supernatural events.

Question 23

Narrative

Answer 23

Story of events or experiences, true or fictitious. A poem may be narrative.

Question 24

Novel

Answer 24

Lengthy prose story dealing with imaginary characters and settings that creates the illusion of real life.

Question 25

Ode

Answer 25

Lyric poem of particularly serious purpose written in language that is dignified and inspired.

Question 26

Onomatopoeia

Answer 26

Use of words whose sounds resemble and/or suggest their meanings.

Buzz; hiss

Question 27

Paradox

Answer 27

Statement that seems contradictory, but that may, in fact, be true.

Someone that had only five birthdays although he was 21 years old, as he was born on February 29th of a leap year.

Question 28

Parody

Answer 28

Writing that pokes fun at a serious work by using exaggeration or broad humor in imitation of the serious work.

Question 29

Personification

Answer 29

Figure of speech where-in an idea or a thing is given human qualities.

Death, be not proud…

Question 30

Poem

Answer 30

Literature that has any or all of the following qualities to a high degree: deep emotion, highly imaginative language with figures of speech, distinctive rhythm, compression of thought, use of the familiar in a symbolic sense, rhyme scheme, words that mean more than they apparently say.

Question 31

Refrain

Answer 31

Word or group of words repeated regularly in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza.

Question 32

Repetition

Answer 32

Restating of a phrase or line for emphasis.

Question 33

Rhyme

Answer 33

In poetry, agreement in the final sounds of two or more words at the ends of lines.

Question 34

Sarcasm

Answer 34

Figure of speech that is harsh in tone and expresses meaning by use of the opposite.

“Excellent” said when a mistake is made.

Question 35

Satire

Answer 35

Work that makes fun of a person, an idea, or a social custom or institution by stressing its foolishness or lack of reasonableness.

Question 36

Short story

Answer 36

Short prose narrative dealing with imaginary characters usually in a single setting, often relating a single incident, and striving for a single effect.

Question 37

Simile

Answer 37

Figure of speech in which two things essentially unlike are compared, with ‘like’ or ‘as’ being used to make the comparison.

A poem lovely as a tree…

Question 38

Soliloquy

Answer 38

Speech of a character in a play, uttered when alone on the stage, in which the speaker informs the audience of his or her thoughts or of knowledge the audience needs to follow the action of the play.

Question 39

Sonnet

Answer 39

Form of poetry consisting of fourteen verses in which two aspects of an idea are presented. In the Petrarchan sonnet, the first aspect of the idea or theme is presented in the first eight lines, which rhyme a b b a a b b a; the second aspect of the idea or commentary on the theme is presented in the second six lines, which rhyme c d e c d e. The first eight lines are the octet; the second six lines are the sestet. In the Shakespearean sonnet, the first aspect is presented in the first twelve lines, which rhyme a b a b c d c d e f e f; the second aspect is presented in the last two lines (couplet), which rhyme g g.

Question 40

Stanza

Answer 40

Unit in a poem, similar to a paragraph in prose writing, usually consisting of four or more lines.

Question 41

Symbol

Answer 41

Object that represents an idea, either psychological, philosophical, social, or religious.

The cross represents Christianity; The Star of David is the symbol of Judaism.

Question 42

Tragedy

Answer 42

Form of a drama that has any or all of the following qualities: conflict of character that ends unhappily; a person of great and noble character who meets with a sudden fall because of his or her own weakness; a theme that appeals to our emotions of pity and fear.

Question 43

Verse

Answer 43

Single line of poetry