Literary Terms

A conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning is an ______.

• simile

• inference

• allusion

• plot

A ___ is a brief and indirect reference to something with historical, cultural, literary, or political significance.

• metaphor

• conflict

• inference

• allusion

Figurative language that makes a comparison by directly relating one thing to another is a ___.

• metaphor

• personification

• climax

• allusion

A genre of fiction in which the author bases many details on scientific information. The author’s imagination creates fictional characters and events.

• historical fiction

• simile

• science fiction

• plot

A character tells the story, referring to him/herself as “I” and presenting only what he/she knows. It includes the narrator as a character in the story (or the speaker as a character in the poem).

• plot

• plot diagram

• second person point of view

• first person point of view

The struggle between opposing forces in a literary work.

• conflict

• personification

• climax

• allusion

The sequence of events in a literary work.

• point of view

• plot

• conflict

• rising action

______ introduces the basic elements of a plot: the characters, the setting, and the initial situation.

• plot

• setting

• exposition

• simile

The conclusion of a story’s plot in which any unanswered questions are answered and “loose ends” are tied up is the ____.

• personification

• resolution

• rising action

• climax

A story plot’s central turning point; the moment of peak tension or conflict to which all the preceding plot developments have been leading is the ______.

• inference

• falling action

• rising action

• Climax