Quiz #1

Question 1

Plot

Answer 1

It is the author’s arrangement of incidents in a story. It is the organizing principle that controls the order of events.

Question 2

Flashback

Answer 2

A device that informs us about events that happened before the opening scene of a work.

Question 3

Character

Answer 3

An imagined person in the story

Question 4

Characterization

Answer 4

The methods by which a writer creates people in a story so that they seem actually to exist.

Question 5

Showing

Answer 5

Allows the author to present a character talking and acting, and lets the reader infer what kind of person the character is.

Question 6

Telling

Answer 6

The author intervenes to describe and sometimes evaluate the character for the reader.

Question 7

Hero/heroine

Answer 7

Otherwise known as the protagonist, the central character who engages the reader’s interest and empathy

Question 8

Antagonist

Answer 8

The character, force, or collection of forces that stands directly opposed to the protagonist and gives rise of the conflict of the story.

Question 9

Static character

Answer 9

A character who does not change throughout the work, and the reader’s knowledge of the character does not grow.

Question 10

Dynamic character

Answer 10

A character who undergoes some kind of change because of the action in the plot.

Question 11

Flat character

Answer 11

Embodies one or two qualities, ideas, or traits that can be readily described in a brief summary. They are not psychologically complex characters and therefore are readily accessible to readers.

Question 12

Stock character

Answer 12

Embody stereotypes such as the “dumb blonde” or the “mean stepfather.”

Question 13

Round character

Answer 13

A character who is more complex than flat or stock character, and often display the inconsistencies and internal conflicts found in most real people. They are more fully developed, and therefore are harder to summarize.

Question 14

Motivated action

Answer 14

Occurs when the reader or audience is offered reasons for how the characters behave, what they say, and the decisions they make.

Question 15

Plausible action

Answer 15

Action by a character in a story that seems reasonable, given the motivations presented.

Question 16

Pyramidal pattern

Answer 16

Divides the plot into three essential parts: rising action, climax, and falling action

Question 17

Rising action

Answer 17

Complication creates some sort of conflict for the protagonist

Question 18

Climax

Answer 18

The moment of greatest emotional tension in a narrative, usually marking a turning point in the plot at which the rising action reverses to become the falling action

Question 19

Falling action

Answer 19

Otherwise known as resolution; characterized by diminishing tensions and the resolution of the plot’s conflicts and complications

Question 20

Media res

Answer 20

A term used to describe the common strategy of beginning a story in the middle of the action. In this type of plot, we enter the story on the verge of some important moment.

Question 21

Setting

Answer 21

The context in which the action of a story occurs

Question 22

Point of view

Answer 22

Refers to who tells us the story and how it is told

Question 23

Narrator

Answer 23

Teller of a story

Question 24

First-person narrator

Answer 24

the “I” in the story presents the point of view of only one character. The reader is restricted to the perceptions, thoughts, and feelings of that single character

Question 25

Unreliable narrator

Answer 25

Reveals an interpretation of events that is somehow different from the author’s own interpretation of the events.

Question 26

Naive characters

Answer 26

Are usually characterized by youthful innocence

Question 27

Omniscient narrator

Answer 27

An all-knowing narrator who is not a character in the story and who can move from place to place and pass back and forth through time, slipping into and out of characters as no human being possibly could in real life. They can report the thoughts and feelings of the characters, as well as their words and actions.

Question 28

Editorial omniscience

Answer 28

Refers to an intrusion by the narrator in order to evaluate a character for a reader.

Question 29

Neutral omniscience

Answer 29

Narration that allows the characters’ actions and thoughts to speak for themselves.

Question 30

Limited omniscience

Answer 30

Occurs when an author restricts a narrator to the single perspective of either a major or minor character. The way people, places, and events appear to that character is the way they appear to the reader.

Question 31

Stream-of-consciousness technique

Answer 31

Takes a reader inside a character’s mind to reveal perceptions, thoughts, and feelings on a conscious or unconscious level

Question 32

Objective point-of-view

Answer 32

Employs a narrator who does not see into the mind of any character

Question 33

Antihero

Answer 33

A protagonist who has the opposite of most of the traditional attributes of a hero.

Question 34

Theme

Answer 34

The central idea or meaning of a story

Question 35

Style

Answer 35

Refers to the distinctive manner in which a writer arranges words to achieve particular effects. That arrangement includes individual word choices and matters such as the length of sentences, their structure and tone, and the use of irony

Question 36

Diction

Answer 36

Refers to a writer’s choice of words

Question 37

Tone

Answer 37

The author’s implicit attitude toward the people, places, and events in a story.

Question 38

Irony

Answer 38

A device that reveals a reality different from what appears to be true.

Question 39

Verbal irony

Answer 39

Consists of a person saying one thing but meaning the opposite.

Question 40

Sarcasm

Answer 40

Verbal irony that is calculated to hurt someone by false praise

Question 41

Situational irony

Answer 41

Exists when there is an incongruity between what is expected to happen and what actually happens.

Question 42

Dramatic irony

Answer 42

Occurs when an author allows the reader to know more about a situation than a character knows; creates a discrepancy between what a character believes or says and what the reader understands to be true.