Multiple-Choice Questions for Literary Terms

What is an allusion?

• A direct comparison between two unlike things using "like" or "as."

• A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance.

• The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.

• A statement that appears self-contradictory but contains a deeper truth.

What is an anecdote?

• A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid.

• A short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person.

• The literary device of using an object or idea to represent something else.

• The atmosphere or dominant emotion created in a literary work.

What is anadiplosis?

• The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.

• The repetition of the last word of a preceding clause at the beginning of the next clause.

• A figure of speech in which words or phrases are repeated in reverse order.

• The omission of a word or phrase easily understood from the context.

Which sentence demonstrates anadiplosis?

• He spoke, and then he left.

• Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

• Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.

• I came, I saw, I conquered.

What is an analogy?

• A figure of speech that contrasts two opposing ideas.

• A comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification.

• The use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning.

• The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.

What is anaphora?

• The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.

• The repetition of a phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.

• The inversion of the usual order of words or clauses.

• The use of a word or phrase in a way that suggests a double meaning.

What is chiasmus?

• The deliberate exaggeration of something for emphasis or effect.

• A rhetorical device in which two or more clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal of their structures.

• The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.

• The use of an object or idea to represent something else.

Which sentence demonstrates chiasmus?

• "We shape our buildings, and afterward our buildings shape us."

• "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

• "He came, he saw, he conquered."

• "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

Which of the following best defines connotation?

• The explicit, direct meaning of a word.

• The emotional or cultural associations and implications a word carries.

• Its grammatical function in a sentence.

• Its historical origin or etymology.

What is the denotation of a word?

• The emotional associations attached to it.

• Its implied or suggested meaning.

• Its literal, dictionary definition.

• Its use in a figurative sense.