STYLISTIC DEVICES QUIZ
1. Why should white people be running all the stores in our community? Why should
white people be running the banks of our community? Why should the economy of
our community be in the hands of the white man? Why? (Malcolm X, Speech)
(a) antithesis
(b) litotes
(c) hyperbole
(d) rhetorical questions
2. What the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over. (English proverb)
(a) synecdoche (b) metaphor (c) irony
(d) pun
3. Peter Parker (spider man) faces his fiendish foe, the Green Goblin. (Film review)
(a) alliteration (b) euphemism (c) assonance
(d) oxymoron
4. "I'll love you, dear, I'll love you / Till China and Africa meet, / And the river jumps
over the mountain / And the salmon sing in the street." (W.H. Auden, "As I Walked
Out One Evening")
(a) synecdoche (b) pun
(c) onomatopoeia (d) hyperbole
5. “When I am weak, then I am strong.” (Bible, St Paul, 2 Corinthians 12)
(a) allusion
(b) litotes
(c) oxymoron
(d) rhyme
6. "Through the open door came the thuds and occasional clangs of a horseshoe
game." (John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men)
(a) simile
(b) allusion
(c) repetition
(d) onomatopoeia
7. “He is as rich as a Lannister!” (George R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones)
(a) oxymoron (b) euphemism (c) simile
(d) metaphor
8. “Hear the mellow wedding bells.” (“Bells” Edgar Alan Poe)
(a) assonance (b) synecdoche (c) metaphor
(d) onomatopoeia
9. “The rain was pounding the tent, tears were pouring down Hermione's face, and
the excitement of a few minutes before had vanished as if it had never been, a
short-lived firework that had flared and died, leaving everything dark, wet, and cold.
The sword of Gryffindor was hidden they knew not where, and they were three
teenagers in a tent whose only achievement was not, yet, to be dead.”
(J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)
(a) irony
(b) alliteration (c) oxymoron
(d) pathetic fallacy
10. “His run was more aggressive, a cheetah rather than a gazelle, and he quickly
overtook them.” (Stephenie Meyer, Twilight)
(a) litotes
(b) paradox
(c) simile
(d) metaphor
11. "Stars, hide your fires! / Let not light see my black and deep desires."
(Shakespeare, Macbeth)
(a) symbol
(b) repetitition
(c) litotes
(d) exclamation
12. “Inside the castle, the Queen spoke to her magic mirror, "Mirror, mirror, on the
wall, who is the fairest one of all?" Every day the mirror had the same reply. "You
are the fairest," it told her. (The Brothers Grimm, Snow White)
(a) irony
(b) symbol
(c) personification (d) pathetic fallacy
13. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. (Joke)
(a) metaphor (b) pun
(c) symbol
(d) personification
14. “Katniss Everdeen, the girl who was on fire, you have provided a spark that, left
unattended, may grow to an inferno that destroys Panem." (Suzanne Collins, The
Hunger Games)
(a) simile
(b) synecdoche (c) symbol
(d) onomatopoeia
15. “Our marriage counsellor had been divorced three times.” (UK magazine article)
(a) assonance (b) irony
(c) symbol
(d) pathetic fallacy
16. “Sweden beat Finland to reach the final.” (BBC News)
(a) imperative (b) irony
(c) metaphor
(d) synecdoche
17. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it
was the age of foolishness." (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)
(a) antithesis (b) litotes
(c) simile
(d) pathetic fallacy
18. “Do not go gentle into that good night. / Rage, rage against the dying of the light”
(Dylan Thomas, " Do not go gentle into that good night")
(a) simile
(b) irony
(c) imperative
(d) assonance
19. "The case has, in some respects, been not entirely devoid of interest."
(Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes)
(a) hyperbole (b) litotes
(c) antithesis
(d) irony
20. “Your country needs you.” (US army recruitment advertisement)
(a) irony
(b) personification (c) hyperbole
(d) direct address
21. Please select the items you want stolen. ☐Bag ☐Mobile phone ☐Money ☐Coat
☐Keys All of the above. Now leave them unattended. Thank you.
(Sign in UK railway station)
(a) allusion
(b) hyperbole
(c) irony
(d) repetition