English 12 Provincial Exam Terms

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Active Voice

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A sentence is written so that the subject is an actor of the verb. ( The cat ate the mouse )

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Anecdotal Evidence

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Informal account of evidence from anecdote or hearsay

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Anti-Climax

Back 3

A sudden shift from relatively serious mood to more comic or trivial

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Antithesis

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A contrast, usually expressed with parallel sentence construction.

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Apostrophe

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A statement, question or request addressed to an inanimate object or concept " O Canada"

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Argumentative essay

Back 6

Takes a particular position of a topic and defends it

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Aside

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Comment made by a stage performer that is intended to be heard by the audience but supposedly nor by other characters

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Atmosphere

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Mood or feeling created by a literary work

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Ballad

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A story/poem told in song, usually by an impersonal narrator and in abcondensed form.

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Ballad stanza

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A quatrain of alternating four and three stress lines, usually rhyming ABCB.

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Autobiography

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Narrative in which an individual tells his or her story

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Biography

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Narrative that tells a person's life story

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Blank verse

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Poetry written in unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter

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Cacophony

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Harsh, discordant sounds places together for effect

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Caricature

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A portrait that exaggerates or distorts basic features of a person for effect

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Case study

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Method of qualitive research where one examines a small, select instance or event in-depth

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Catastrophe

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In drama, particularly tragedy, that concluding action following the climax that contains the resolution of the plot

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Cause and effect

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The reason something happened is the 'Cause', the something that happened is the 'effect'

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Characterization

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Methods a writer uses to develop and reveal the personality of the character

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Chorus

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In ancient Greek drama, a group of actors who commented on and interpreted the unfolding action of the stage

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Climatic order

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Organizing ideas by order of importance, often from least important to most important

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Colloquialism

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A word or phrase that is acceptable in causal conversation but not in formal, written communication

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Couplet

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Two successive lines of verse that rhyme and are usually of equal length

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Diction

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Vocabulary chosen by the writer

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Didactic

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Intended to teach a lesson, especially a moral one

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Dilemma

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A choice between two equally unfavourable options

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Dissonance

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C9mbijatioj of harsh or jarring sounds

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Dramatic monologue

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A type of poems in which a speaker addresses a silent listener

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Editorial

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Statement/article that expresses an opinion rather than just reporting facts

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Elegy

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A solemn poem that mourns the death of a person or the passing of an era

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Emotional appeal

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Writing that persuades the audience by arousing emotions

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Epic

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Pong, narrative poem about the adventures of a hero of great historic or legendary importance

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Epilogue

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A short speech (often in verse) addressed directly to audience by an actor at the end of a play

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Epigram

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A saying that makes the speaker's point quickly and concisely

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Epitaph

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Inscription on a monument or tombstone about the person buried there

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Euphemism

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Mild expression used to describe an otherwise offensive word or topic

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Euphony

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Musical/ pleasant sounds places together for effect

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Expert testimony

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Providing evidence from an expert, who by virtue of education, profession, or experience, is believed to have a special knowledge

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Extended metaphor

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A metaphor that develops through a poem that involves serial points of comparison

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Fable

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Narrative intended to convey a moral: animals or inanimate objects with human characteristics oftebbsrve as characters

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Farce

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A type of comedy characterised by broad humour, outlandish incidents and often vulgar subject matter

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Frame story

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The result of inserting one or more small stories within the body of a larger story that encompasses the smaller ones

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Free verse

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Poetry with neither rhyme nor rhythm and meter

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Hero

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Protagonist who possesses heroic qualities such as courage or virtues

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Iambic pentameter

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A line composed of five iambic feet

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Idiom

Back 46

An expression that makes sense as a whole phrase but poses it's meaning when each word is defined

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Indeterminate ending

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Story ending with no clear outcome/resolved conflict

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Internal rhyme

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Rhyming of words within a line of poetry.

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Jargon

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Specialized language found in a particular subject

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Juxtaposition

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Contrasts of characters of events in which positioning is important

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Legend

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Narrative of human actions that are perceived to take place within human history and within the realm of possibility

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Limited omniscient point of view

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The third person ( pronouns = he,she ) narrator who reveals the thoughts and feelings of only one character

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Lyric

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Relatively short non-Narrative poem in which the first-person speaker expresses thoughts and feelings not necessarily those of the poet

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Melodrama

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The typical plot is a conflict between characters who personify extreme good and evil; usually end happilynans emphasise sensationalism

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Metaphor

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Direct comparison between objects

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Metre

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When poetry is read aloud, there is often a recognizable flow of rising and falling sounds

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Motif

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Repeated element in literature

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Myth

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A traditional story that is closely associated isn't a particular culture or group of people which usually communicates the beliefs and values of that culture

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Objective point of view

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The third person narrator who reveals none of the thoughts and feelings of the characters but records details of the sorry as a video camera would

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Octave

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Eight line stanza

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Ode

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Long lyrics poem that praises a person or thing

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Omniscient point of view

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Means "all seeing" the third person narrator who can reveal the thoughts and feelings of several characters

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Oxymoron

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Phrases with an inherent contradiction

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Parallelism

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Method of comparison of two ideas in which each is delevoped in the same grammatical structure

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Pastoral

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Literary composition on rural theme

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Personal essay

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Focuses on the writer as subject

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Persuasive essay

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Used persuasive techniques to prove the writer's thesis

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Proverb

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A brief, sage saying that expresses a truth about life in a striking matter

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Quatrain

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A 4 line stanza