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Free Literary Terms and Devices MCQs with Answers

330 Literary Terms and Devices MCQs from English Literature, each with the correct answer and a written explanation of why it is correct. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.

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330 questions · page 6 of 17

101. This mode of discourse is used to explain. (Example: repair manuals) ?

  • A. Connotation
  • B. Constitution
  • C. Convocation
  • D. Exposition

Explanation: Exposition is discourse that explains or informs, as in a repair manual or an instructional guide.

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Correct answer: Exposition

102. This mode of discourse presents details that appeal to the senses______________?

  • A. Description
  • B. Metaphor
  • C. Persuation
  • D. Narration

Explanation: Description presents the qualities or appearance of a person, place, object, or scene, often using details that appeal to sight, sound…

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Correct answer: Description

103. This mode of discourse attempts to convince someone______________?

  • A. Persuasion
  • B. Prejudice
  • C. Promise
  • D. Promotion

Explanation: Persuasion is discourse designed to influence someone’s beliefs, judgment, or actions.

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Correct answer: Persuasion

104. Well, then; I have received personal information, from a very high quarter, that a certain document of the last importance, has been purloined from the royal apartments. The individual who purloined it is known; this beyond a doubt; he was seen to take it. It is known, also, that it still remains in his possession. What is the meaning of the verb to purloin ?

  • A. To borrow
  • B. To steal
  • C. To ruin
  • D. To return

Explanation: To purloin means to take something dishonestly or secretly, that is, to steal it.

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Correct answer: To steal

105. A factual account of the development of a people, nation, institution or culture_____________?

  • A. Tradition
  • B. Constitution
  • C. History
  • D. Myth

Explanation: History is a factual account of the development of a people, nation, institution, or culture.

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Correct answer: History

106. I ask: Is it not the case that everybody that is not white is treated with contempt and counted as barbarians? And I ask if the word of God justifies the white man in so doing. When the prophets prophesied, of whom did they speak? When they spoke of heathens, was it not the whites and others who were counted Gentiles? And I ask if all nations with the exception of the Jews were not counted heathens. This passage exemplifies________________?

  • A. Jamming
  • B. Snaring
  • C. Hortatory sermon
  • D. Framing

Explanation: A hortatory sermon uses religious reasoning to urge an audience toward a moral or social response.

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Correct answer: Hortatory sermon

107. Define trickster tale ?

  • A. A recurrent thematic element in an artistic or literary work.
  • B. The struggle found in fiction
  • C. Giving human qualities to animals or objects
  • D. A story about a mischievous, supernatural being

Explanation: A trickster tale centres on a cunning, mischievous figure, often a supernatural being or animal, who disrupts accepted rules.

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Correct answer: A story about a mischievous, supernatural being

108. This mode of discourse relates a story________________?

  • A. Fiction
  • B. Narration
  • C. Exposition
  • D. Persuasion

Explanation: Narration is the mode of discourse that presents or relates a sequence of events as a story.

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Correct answer: Narration

109. In Talbot county, Eastern Shore, Maryland, near Easton, the county town of that country, there is a small district of country, thily populated, and remarkable for nothing that I know of more than for the worn-out, sandy, deserts-like appearance of its soil, the general dilapidation of its farms and fences, the indigent and spiritless character of its inhabitants, and the prevalence of ague and fever. What does dilapidation mean ?

  • A. Hunger or famine
  • B. Decrease
  • C. Derivation
  • D. Neglect or decray

Explanation: Dilapidation means a state of decay or neglect, fitting the passage's description of deteriorating farms and fences.

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Correct answer: Neglect or decray

110. The following extract presents a suitable answer to the hacknied argument drawn by the defender of Slavery from the songs of the Slave, and is also a good specimen of the powers of observation and manly heart of the writer. The word hacknied is an old form of the word hackneyed. What does it mean ?

  • A. Lacking in freshness and originality
  • B. Saddened
  • C. Double meaning
  • D. Blue-eyed

Explanation: Hackneyed means overused and lacking freshness or originality, which suits an argument repeatedly employed by defenders of slavery.

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Correct answer: Lacking in freshness and originality

111. What type of myth is the tale "The Jealous Uncle" ?

  • A. Origin tale
  • B. Trickster tale
  • C. Hero tale
  • D. A fable

Explanation: “The Jealous Uncle” is classified as a hero tale because its narrative centres on a significant character involved in extraordinary…

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Correct answer: Hero tale

112. This term is an elaborate comparison between two different subjects___________?

  • A. Simile
  • B. Conceit
  • C. Sermon
  • D. Anomoly

Explanation: A conceit is an extended or elaborate comparison between apparently unlike things, especially common in metaphysical poetry.

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Correct answer: Conceit

113. The process of passing on sayings, songs and tales ?

  • A. Narration
  • B. History
  • C. Persuasion
  • D. Oral Tradition

Explanation: Oral tradition is the transmission of cultural material such as sayings, songs, legends, and tales by word of mouth across generations.

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Correct answer: Oral Tradition

114. This is the implied comparison between two dissimilar things_______________?

  • A. Myth
  • B. History
  • C. Tradition
  • D. Metaphor

Explanation: A metaphor makes an implied comparison between unlike things without using “like” or “as.” A simile would make the comparison explicitly…

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Correct answer: Metaphor

115. This is a system of fundamental laws governing a society______________?

  • A. Discourse
  • B. Constitution
  • C. Language
  • D. Connotation

Explanation: A constitution is the fundamental body of laws and principles that establishes how a society or government is organised.

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Correct answer: Constitution

116. The cautious old gentleman knit his brows tenfold closer after this explanation, being sorely puzzled by the ratiocination of the syllogism; while methought the one in pepper and salt eyed him with something of a triumphant leer. At length he observed, that all this was very well, but still he thought the story a little extravagant - there were one or two points on which he had his doubts. "Faith, sir," replied the story-teller, "as to that matter, I don't believe one half of it myself." This passage exemplifies_____________?

  • A. Narrative frame
  • B. Hortatory sermon
  • C. Snaring
  • D. Jamming

Explanation: The passage places a story inside a surrounding conversation between listeners and a storyteller, creating a narrative frame.

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Correct answer: Narrative frame

117. But when to their feminine rage the indignation of the people is added, when the ignorant and the poor are aroused, when the unintelligent brute force that lies at the bottom of society is made to growl and mow, it needs the habit of magnanimity and religion to treat it godlike as a trifle of no concernment. What does "mow" mean in this context ?

  • A. To grimace
  • B. To bleat like sheep
  • C. To lift heavy things
  • D. To cut grass

Explanation: Here, “mow” is an archaic verb meaning to make grimaces or distorted facial expressions.

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Correct answer: To grimace

118. " I hear my being dance from ear to ear". Here ear to ear refers to_____________?

  • A. a round about way of telling things
  • B. a heart warming smile
  • C. listening through an ear and pass it off through the other
  • D. a complete experience

Explanation: “From ear to ear” suggests something extending across the whole range of a person’s experience or being in this poetic context.

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Correct answer: a complete experience

119. Define oral tradition______________?

  • A. The passing on from one generation to another of songs, chants, proverbs, and other verbal compositions after it has been written down.
  • B. The telling of songs, chants, proverbs, and other verbal compositions to a single generation within and between nonliterate cultures
  • C. The use of "like" or "as" to draw a comparison between two unlike things
  • D. The passing on from one generation (and/or locality) to another of songs, chants, proverbs, and other verbal compositions within and between non-literate cultures by word of mouth

Explanation: Oral tradition transmits verbal compositions such as songs, proverbs, and chants by word of mouth across generations and communities…

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Correct answer: The passing on from one generation (and/or locality) to another of songs, chants, proverbs, and other verbal compositions within and between non-literate cultures by word of mouth

120. Which among the following is an example acronym ?

  • A. Smog
  • B. UNESCO
  • C. Buzz
  • D. Edit

Explanation: UNESCO is formed from the initial letters of “United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization” and is pronounced as a…

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Correct answer: UNESCO
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