Week 6 Terms

Question 1

Freytag’s Pyramid

Answer 1

Diagram of dramatic structure

-Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution

Question 2

Irony/ironic

Answer 2

• Contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant, or the difference between what appears to be and what is actually true
• Irony is often used to create poignancy or humor. In general, there are three major types of irony used in language (verbal, dramatic, and situational)

Question 3

Verbal irony

Answer 3

When the words literally state the opposite of the writer’s (or speaker’s) meaning

Question 4

Situational irony

Answer 4

When events turn out the opposite of what was expected; when what the characters and
readers think ought to happen is not what does happen

Question 5

Dramatic irony

Answer 5

When facts or events are unknown to a character in a play or piece of fiction but known to the reader, audience, or other characters in the work

Question 6

Genre

Answer 6

Major category into which a literary work fits
-On the AP language exam, expect the majority of the passages to be from the following genres: autobiography, biography, diaries, criticism, essays, and journalistic, political, scientific, and nature writing

Question 7

Grounds

Answer 7

Reasons or supporting evidence

Question 8

Hasty generalization

Answer 8

Basing an argument on limited or insufficient evidence

Question 9

Homily

Answer 9

This term literally means “sermon,” but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice.

Question 10

Horative sentence

Answer 10

Sentence that exhorts, urges, entreats, implores, or calls to action (Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us. –John F. Kennedy)

Question 11

Hyperbole

Answer 11

Figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement. (The literal Greek meaning is “overshoot.”)

• Often have a comic effect; however, a serious effect is also possible. Often, hyperbole produces irony
• Opposite of hyperbole is understatement

Question 12

Imagery

Answer 12

Sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions

Question 13

Imperative sentence

Answer 13

Sentence used to command or enjoin (My fellow citizens of the word: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man. -John F. Kennedy)

Question 14

Inductive reasoning

Answer 14

Argument in which general conclusions are drawn from specific facts

Question 15

Inference/infer

Answer 15

To draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented. When a multiple choice question asks for an inference to be drawn from a passage, the most direct, most reasonable inference is the safest answer choice

Question 16

Innuendo

Answer 16

Subtle or indirect observation about a person or thing, usually of a disparaging nature

Question 17

Intended readers

Answer 17

Actual, real-life people whom a writer consciously wants to address in a piece of writing

Question 18

Invective

Answer 18

An emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language. (For example, in Henry IV, Part I, Prince Hal calls the large character of Falstaff “this sanguine coward, this bedpresser, this horseback breaker, this huge hill of flesh.”)

Question 19

Inversion

Answer 19

Inverted order of words in a sentence (variation of the subject-verb-object order)

Question 20

Invoked readers

Answer 20

Readers directly addressed or implied in a text, which may include some that the writer didn’t consciously intend to reach. An argument that refers to those who have experienced a major trauma, for example, invokes all readers who have undergone this experience