Exam # 3 Key
1. A character who serves to underscore another character's traits through contrast.
B. foil
2. Intentional exaggeration for effect, particularly in poetry
D. hyperbole
3. A scene that takes place before the ongoing events in a work; a method of narration in which
present action is temporarily interrupted so that the reader can witness past events.
C. flashback
4. Something that represents something else in complex ways
C. symbol
5. A metrical unit specific to poetry.
A. foot
6. The speaker of a poem.
B. persona
7. The largest subdivision of a play is a/an
A. act
8. In a play, a sequence with continuous time and space is a/an
B. scene
9. The point of highest tension in some literary works, the major turning point (or crisis)
A. climax
10. When one character talks onstage at length and other characters are silent, it is called
D. a monologue
11. The introductory material in a play or other literary work that gives setting, introduces characters,
and supplies information needed for us to understand what is happening is called
C. exposition
12. When one or more characters converse, it is called
B. a dialogue
13. When a character in a short story or novel is telling the story, it is said to be in
A. first person
14. A sudden moment of enlightenment is called a/an
D. epiphany
15. The literary technique of opening a story in the middle of its action is called
A. in media res
16. When a character is alone on stage and gives a speech that indicates his or her thoughts and state of mind,
C. a soliloquy
17. A recurring element is called a/an
D. motif
18. When a character on stage turns and briefly addresses the audience
D. an aside
19. When a work of fiction ends with a conclusion that wraps everything up.
A. closed ending
20. A turning point in a plot
B. crisis
21. The repetition of consonant sounds following different vowels sounds inside words in proximity (as in
“babble and rubble” or “entice” and “intact”).
C. consonance
22. The repetition of identical or very similar vowel sounds (usually in stressed syllables) followed by
different consonant sounds in words in close proximity (as in “bad cat” or “cold bloke”).
D. assonance
23. The repetition of sounds at the beginnings of words in close proximity ( as in “soul so sunk in sin”).
B. alliteration
24. When a work of fiction does not end with a conclusion that wraps everything up.
B. open ending
25. An indirect reference to a person, event, or statement found in literature, the arts, myth, religion, or culture.
B. allusion
26. Figure of speech where a poet addresses an absent person or thing which cannot actually hear him or her.
A. apostrophe
27. When a line of poetry caries over into the next line before it expresses a complete thought
C. enjambment
28. The association(s) evoked by a word beyond its literal meanings.
A. connotation
29. Language used to convey a sensory impression or experience.
C. imagery
30. Poem with three quatrains and a couplet.
A. English sonnet
31. Poetry that communicates a speaker’s mood, feelings, or state of mind.
B. lyric
32. A character who changes during the course of a literary work
A. dynamic
33. Four lines of poetry
C. quatrain t
34. Poem with an octet and a sestet.
B. Italian sonnet
35. The recurrence of regular repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables in lines of poetry.
A. meter
36. Something that hints at something yet to come in a work
D. foreshadowing
37. A comparison that is implicit, as when something is said to be something else.
B. metaphor
38. A comparison that is explicit, as when something is said to be like something else
D. simile
39. An extended metaphor that is characterized by unusual analogies or imagery
D. metaphysical conceit
40. A type of narrative where the author tells us none of the characters' thoughts or feelings.
C. objective
41. The general mood of a work, often created in part by setting.
A. atmosphere
42. A poem that lists a woman's charms from head to foot or foot to head.
A. blason
43. Another literary term for conclusion.
A. dénouement
44. The idiosyncratic choices a particular writer makes, especially as pertains to language.
D. style
45. An emotional turning point in an Italian sonnet.
B. volta
46. The idiomatic style of speech and words used in a given region.
D. dialect
47. Word choice; vocabulary
D. diction
48. A poem written about bereavement.
C. epic
49. The underlying meaning of a work
D. theme
50. Something said that is different from what was intended, something that a character believes that the audience knows to be false, a course of action that turns out to have the opposite effect than what was intended, etc.
C. irony