LITERARY DEVICE QUIZ

Name:__________________________________

1. When an author in her own work refers to an event in another work, this is called a(n) _____.
a) metaphor
b) allusion
c) simile
d) epigraph

2."Purple puppies like playing on the playground." This is an example of

a) oxymoron
b) alliteration
c) anaphora
d) synonym

3. This cartoon illustrates:

a) hyperbole
b) paradox
c) prose
d) oxymoron

4. Irony is when an event or response occurs that is the _________ of what is expected.
a) similar
b) opposite
c) quite similar
d) related to

5. "Hello darkness, my old friend I've come to talk with you again ..." (Paul Simon, The Sounds of Silence)
a) personification
b) Animal imagery
c) objectification
d) Juxtaposition
6. The funeral home was built next to a children's nursery. This is an example of
a) paradox
b) oxymoron
c) juxtaposition
d)metaphor

7. If a boy is dying of thirst on a deserted island while looking out at water in every direction, this is an
example of:
a) personification
b) animal imagery
c) irony
d) simile

8.Which of the following is an example of onomatopoeia?

a ) I saw the dappled sunlight through the leaves.
b) I enjoyed the sweet, sun ripened fruit.
c) I felt such excitement as the wind whooshed past my ear.
d) The fog was a heavy, wet blanket smothering the city.

9.Leslie heard a thump as the chair fell against the wall. Which type of figurative language is thump?
a) simile
b) metaphor
c) idiom
d) onomatopoeia

10. Which sentence below contains a metaphor?

a) The clouds were cotton in the blue sky.
b) Although she was tiny, Mariah ran like the wind.
c) The wagon was filled with bright orange pumpkins.
d) The hoops were covered with multicolored ribbon.

11.Mom always worried about money. She worried about money for rent, money for food, and money for
clothes. Thoughts about money worried her night and day. The passage uses
a) onomatopoeia.
b) simile.
c) metaphor.
d) repetition.

12. On the Fourth of July, the air is filled with bangs and booms of fireworks. The sentence above contains an
example of
a) metaphor
b) simile
c) onomatopoeia
d) rhyme

13. __________________________ is a statement in which two objects, often unrelated, are compared to
each other directly.
14. _______________________ is giving human attributes to nonhuman objects.

15.__________________refers to any sort of exaggerated description or statement.

16.___________________refers to the placement of contrasting ideas next to each other, often to produce an
ironic or thought-provoking effect.

17. _____________________ is a juxtaposition of contrasting ideas that, while seemingly impossible, which
actually reveals a deeper truth. Another word for this is ______________________.

18.__________________ is a fancy word for a literary reference; when a writer addresses something while
either directly or indirectly referring to another, commonly-known piece of art or literature.

19. A/an ________________ is an extended metaphor that runs throughout an entire work of literature, for
example, George Orwell’s Animal Farm which symbolizes the deterioration of Communism during the early
establishment of the U.S.S.R.

20-22. What are the three most commonly used types of irony? a) ________________________, b)
____________________________, c) ______________________________

23.________________________is a word that sounds like the noise it describes.

24._________________________refers to the succession of words with similar sounds. For example: this
sentence, so assiduously steeped in “s” sounds, was sculpted studiously by a scholar.

25.Any time the writer hints towards later events in the story, often underscoring the story’s suspense and
conflict it is called _________________________________.

26. _________________is a literary device in prose in which the audience understands more about the
situation than the story’s characters do. The most classic example of this is in “Romeo and Juliet” when Romeo
thinks Juliet has died when the audience realizes she is just asleep from the potion she drank.

27._________________ is any interruption in the story where the narration goes back in time. The reader may
need information from previous events in order to understand the present-day story, and this literary device
drops the reader into the scene itself.

28. When two unrelated objects are being compared to each other and the comparison relies on the words
“like” or “as”, this is referred to as a/an_______________________.

29. A synonym for hyperbole is ______________________________.

30. What is a literary device? _____________________________________________.

31-32.When you smash two antonyms together to create a new word, it is called an
__________________________. An example of this is ____________________________________.

33.The opposite of hyperbole is ______________________________________.

 34. A/an ______________is an indirect, “polite” way of describing something too inappropriate or awkward
to address directly.

35. When someone asks a question that doesn't require an answer, this literary device is called
___________________.

36. When readers expect a certain outcome, only to be surprised by a turn of events in a story, this is
called________________.

37. A synonym for sarcasm is_______________________.

38. When you _______________ something you write synonyms for that word or phrase.

39. When a writer uses the same word or phrase again and again and again to make a dramatic point, this is a
classic example of ________________________.

40. A ____________________ is a phrase or literary device that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought.

41. A situation in which something which was intended to have a particular result has the opposite or a very
different result is called___________________.

42. Give an example of the use of anamorphism? _____________________________________________

43-46. Please list four ways of saying “an abundance of” differently.
a)_________________________b)____________________________c)_____________________________
d)_________________________

48-50. Read the following sentence: “At its core, storytelling has one ambition: to capture and sustain your
reader’s attention and keep them reading your story. A writer uses literary devices to do this”
b) core______________________(1)
b) ambition__________________(1)
c) capture and sustain_________________(2)

Extra Credit

Discuss a literary device that was not covered on this quiz: