Midterm English 2 Honors

Question 1

Alliteration:

Answer 1

The repetition of similar consonant sounds within a phrase or sentence

Question 2

Allusion:

Answer 2

A reference to a well-known person, event, place, literary work, or work of art

Question 3

Anaphora:

Answer 3

repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines

Question 4

Antithesis

Answer 4

two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect
Example: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Question 5

Asyndeton:

Answer 5

the absence of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses or words.
Example: “I came, I saw, I conquered.”
Purpose – helps in reducing the indirect meaning of the phrase and presents it in a concise form; typically used to give a list energy and spontaneity.

Question 6

Catharsis

Answer 6

:The purging of pity and fear (the ultimate goal of a tragedy).

Question 7

Conduplicatio

Answer 7

repetition of a key word over successive phrases or clauses
Example: “We will have difficult times. We’ve had difficult times in the past. And we will have difficult times in the future.” (Robert F. Kennedy’s Eulogy for Martin Luther King, Jr., 1968)
Purpose - Serves as an effective focusing device showing the reader what to concentrate on

Question 8

epiphany:

Answer 8

A moment of sudden revelation or insight

Question 9

foreshadowing:

Answer 9

Giving clues to the reader about what will happen next.

Question 10

Hubris:

Answer 10

excessive pride or arrogance

Question 11

Imagery:

Answer 11

Language that creates a sensory impression within the reader’s mind (includes appeals to the visual (eyes), auditory (ears), tactile (touch), thermal (heat or cold), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), and kinesthetic

Question 12

Inference:

Answer 12

an educated guess made by the reader, based on evidence in the story

Question 13

Irony:

Answer 13

When the opposite of what is expected occurs
situational irony: when the opposite of what is expected in a situation occurs (such as a teacher’s kid getting detention)
verbal irony: when someone says the opposite of what they mean
dramatic irony: when the audience knows what will happen next but the characters do not

Question 14

Metaphor

Answer 14

A figure of speech in which something is described as though it were something else without using “like” or “as.”

Question 15

motif:

Answer 15

Any element, subject, idea or concept that is consistently present through the entire body of literature

Question 16

Paralipsis

Answer 16

pretending to omit something
Example: “I will not even mention the fact that my opponent was a poor student.”
Purpose – Saying that one will not mention the person, subject, event, etc. has the opposite effect; it draws the audience’s attention in that direction.

Question 17

parenthesis:

Answer 17

a piece of punctuation ()

Question 18

paradox:

Answer 18

a statement that appears at first to be contradictory, but upon reflection then makes sense.

Question 19

parallel structure/parallelism

Answer 19

Similarity in structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.
Example: “They are protesting for the perpetuation of injustice in the community; we’re protesting for the birth of justice. . . .”
Note: It is the repetition of grammatical structures, not words (as in anaphora or conduplicatio).

Question 20

polysyndeton

Answer 20

repetition of conjunctions such as “and”, “or”, “for” and “but” in close succession, especially when most of them could be replaced with a comma.
Example: “In years gone by, there were in every community men and women who spoke the language of duty and morality and loyalty and obligation” (William F. Buckley).
Purpose – using conjunctions to emphasize rhythm and therefore emphasize a certain point

Question 21

Repetition

Answer 21

The act of using words or phrases several times for effect.

Question 22

Symbol/symbolic:

Answer 22

the use of one object, character, or idea to represent something larger than itself

Question 23

Synecdoche

Answer 23

figure of speech in which the part of something is used to represent the whole
Purpose – Writers give otherwise common ideas and objects deeper meanings and thus draw readers’ attention and helps writers be more concise.
Example: “Soldiers were equipped with steel” is more concise than saying, “The soldiers were equipped with swords, knives, daggers, arrows, etc.”

Question 24

Tone:

Answer 24

the author’s attitude towards a subject
Also, be able to identify tone shifts

Question 25

Understatement

Answer 25

intentionally make a situation seem less important than it really is.