Cset English Subtests 1 And 3

Front 1

Alliteration

Back 1

• Repeating of the initial consonant sounds in a sentence, paragraph, or line of poetry

• Used to emphasize certain words and phrases, or to create a hypnotic effect

• E.g. "The tip of the tongue taking a trip"

Front 2

Allusion

Back 2

• Reference in a literary work to some famous person, place, event, artwork, or other literary work

• Used to enrich a work with shared cultural references

• E.g. In "The Wasteland" T.S. Eliot alludes to a well-known children's song: "London bridges falling down, falling down."

Front 3

Anachronism

Back 3

• A detail in a literary work that is not appropriate for its time setting

• E.g. a woman in Victorian England making a call on a cell phone

Front 4

Analogy

Back 4

• When a writer emphasizes the ways two apparently unlike thing are actually similar

• Metaphors and similes are used to construct analogies

• E.g. Emily Dickinson sets up an analogy between a church and her home:

Some keep the Sabbath going to church-

I keep it, staying at home-

With a Bobolink for a Chorister-

And an Orchard for a Dome-

Front 5

Antithesis

Back 5

• A figure of speech that balances an idea with a contrasting one or its opposite

• E.g. "Some say the world will end in fire / some say in ice."

Front 6

Assonance

Back 6

• The repetition of vowel sound in a sentence or line of poetry

• Used for emphasis or to create tone

• E.g. "monotonous drone of song"

Front 7

Climax

Back 7

• The point of greatest dramatic tension in a narrative

• E.g. In Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo kills Juliet's cousin Tybalt and the lovers make plans to run away together

Front 8

Colloquialism

Back 8

• Informal language

• The use of ordinary words or phrases to create a tone of familiarity

Front 9

Connotation

Back 9

• Using precise words to give a positive or negative slant to a statement or passage

• E.g. fragrance is positive, while stench is negative, but both mean smell

Front 10

Denotation

Back 10

The literal meaning of a word as found in the dictionary

Front 11

Diction

Back 11

• Choice of words and style of language used

• Used to create the tone of a work

• E.g. using archaic or old-fashioned words; dialect or regional speech patterns; colloquialisms; or jargon and technical language

Front 12

Dramatic Monologue

Back 12

• A poetic form written in blank verse revealing a character's inner thoughts and emotions

• Often there is an implied listener

Front 13

Euphemism

Back 13

• An inoffensive phrase used to replace a more direct or unpleasant expression

• E.g. saying "she passed on" instead of "she died"

Front 14

Flashback

Back 14

• A description or episode used in a literary work that interrupts the main story to recount something that happened in the past.

• Used for emphasis or as a transition

Front 15

Foreshadowing

Back 15

• When an author provides clues to what will happen later in a narrative

• E.g. the witches speech at the beginning of Macbeth foreshadows the tragedy to come

Front 16

Heroic Couplet

Back 16

• A form of English poetry with pairs of rhyming lines in iambic pentameter

• E.g. "Truth guards the poet, sanctifies the line /

And makes immortal, Verse as mean as mine"

Front 17

Hyperbole

Back 17

• An absurdly exaggerated statement

• E.g. "I'm so thirsty I could drink the ocean dry"

Front 18

Imagery

Back 18

• Descriptive language to enlist the senses in evoking a scene, situation, or state of mind

• E.g "But your voice, --never the rushing / Of a river underground, / Not the rising of the wind / In the trees before the rain"

Front 19

Irony

Back 19

The discordance between the expected meaning of words or actions and what they actually mean.

Front 20

Verbal Irony

Back 20

• Saying one thing and meaning something else

• E.g. Hamlet mocks how hastily his mother married his uncle after is father's death:

"Thrift, thrift, Horatio, the funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the wedding tables."

Front 21

Situational Irony

Back 21

• When a situation is much different than what the characters think

• E.g. for his final sword battle with Laertes, Hamlet is unaware that Laertes' sword tip is poisoned

Front 22

Dramatic Irony

Back 22

• When the audience knows something that the characters in the narrative do not know

• E.g. the audience knows Hamlet is feigning madness to gain time, while the other characters actually believe he is going insane

Front 23

Malapropism

Back 23

• A word mistaken for another word with a similar sound

• Often used in comedy

• E.g. "I thought she had persisted from corresponding with him" (instead of desisted)

Front 24

Metaphor

Back 24

• Comparing two unlike things without the use of like or as

• E.g. "Hope is the thing with feathers / that perches on the soul"

Front 25

Meter

Back 25

A way of measuring the rhythm in formal verse

Front 26

Metonomy

Back 26

• When a word is substituted for another word with which it is somehow linked or closely associated.

• E.g. "The pen is mightier than the sword." The pen is a substitution for literature or the written word and the sword is a substitution for military force

Front 27

Onomatopoeia

Back 27

• Using words that imitate sounds

• E.g. crash, ring, clatter, buzz, boom

Front 28

Oxymoron

Back 28

• A phrase made up of words that seem to contradict each other, but actually express a special meaning

• E.g. "act naturally," "a deafening silence," "passive aggressive"

Front 29

Paradox

Back 29

• A statement whose parts seem contradictory, yet upon further study convey a deeper meaning.

• E.g. "All men are equal, but some or more equal than others"

Front 30

Personification

Back 30

• A figure of speech wherein human characteristics are given to something non-human

• E.g. "'Ah William we are weary of weather,' / Said the sunflowers, shining with dew"

Front 31

Point of View

Back 31

How a literary work is narrated

• First person (I am the narrator)

• Second person (You are the narrator)

• Third person (A person outside the story is the narrator)

• Omniscient (The narrator has knowledge of everything, including every characters' thoughts and emotions)

Front 32

Simile

Back 32

• A comparison of two unlike things using "like" or "as"

• E.g. "His brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper"

Front 33

Symbol

Back 33

• An animal, object, place, action, or event that an author uses to represent a larger meaning

• E.g. In Anton Chekhov's play, "The Seagull," a dead seagull is used as a symbol for a hapless young girl who is mistreated by another character in the story

Front 34

Theme

Back 34

• In a literary work, the central idea about life or the human condition that it presents

• E.g. in "The Mending Wall," Robert Frost addresses the theme of freedom versus security

Front 35

Tone

Back 35

• The manner in which an author approaches his or her material

• Expressed through style and the pervading atmosphere

• E.g. the tone of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is dark, serious, and foreboding

Front 36

Narrative Writing

Back 36

• Tells a story and includes plot, characters, setting, chronological structure, and theme

• E.g. Novels, short stories, plays, myths, legends, and fables

Front 37

Descriptive Writing

Back 37

• Uses sensory language, rich detail, and figurative language to portray people, places or things

• Helps reader visualize a scene and appeals to the reader's senses

Front 38

Expository Writing

Back 38

• Seeks to inform, explain, instruct, clarify, or define

• Features a main topic, supporting details and facts, strong organization, and logical transitions

• E.g. newspaper and magazine articles, manuals, guidebooks, reports, and research papers

Front 39

Persuasive Writing

Back 39

• Seeks to convince the reader to agree with a point of view or take a particular action.

• The writer states a position and supports it with facts and examples

• E.g. editorials, speeches, advertisements, and petitions

Front 40

Appeal to Reason

Back 40

The writer employs logic to make and argument

Front 41

Inductive Reasoning

Back 41

The writer presents a specific case or example and then draws general conclusions from it.

Front 42

Inductive Reasoning: Part-to-whole

Back 42

• Where the whole is assumed to be like individual parts.

• E.g. "The simplified tax form has been a huge success in my state. Therefore it should be used as a model for federal tax reform."

Front 43

Inductive Reasoning: Extrapolation

Back 43

• Where areas beyond the area of focus are assumed to be like the focused-on area

• E.g. "In home entertainment, people have come to expect more choices about what TV to watch, what songs to listen to, and what games to play. Why not give them more choices with health care as well?"

Front 44

Inductive Reasoning: Prediction

Back 44

• Where the future is assumed to be like the past

• E.g. "In the twentieth century, the automobile changed living patterns by encouraging people to live far from where they worked. By building more light-rail systems today, people will once again see new options in where to live and work."

Front 45

Deductive Reasoning

Back 45

• The writer presents a generalization and them applies it to a specific case

• The generalization should be based on reliable evidence

• E.g. "Immunization has been one of the most successful public-health initiatives in American history. Today it can help us eliminate one of the most deadly childhood diseases."

Front 46

Aphorism

Back 46

A saying that includes a statement of truth.

E.g. "Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle; Old age regret."

Front 47

Motif

Back 47

• an object or idea that repeats itself throughout a literary work

• images, ideas, sounds or words that help to

explain the central idea of a literary work, i.e. theme

• E.g. Incest is a recurring motif in Hamlet