Literature Test #2 – PRACTICE TEST
Figurative Language, Cause and Effect, Characterization, Point of View, and Conflict
1. What is a figure of speech that compares two things, says that something actually is
something else, but does not use like or as? For example, “The road was a winding ribbon.”
a. metaphor
b. simile
c. idiom
d. hyperbole
2. What is a figure of speech that compares two things using the words like or as? For
example, “The clouds were as white as cotton balls.”
a. metaphor
b. simile
c. idiom
d. hyperbole
3. What is a figure of speech that does not literally mean what is says? For example, “My
mother was impatient and told me to hold my horses.”
a. metaphor
b. simile
c. idiom
d. hyperbole
4. Which figurative language term goes with the following example?
-I’m so tired I could sleep for 1,000 years!
a. personification
b. metaphor
c. idiom
d. hyperbole
5. Identify the cause in the following example:
-Because she was tired, she did not go to the party.
a.
party
b. she was tired
c. she
d. she did not go to the party
6. Identify the effect in the following example:
-Because she was tired, she did not go to the party.
a. party
b. she was tired
c. she
d. she did not go to the party
7. What is a clue word for the cause of a sentence?
a. because
b. since
c. due to
1
d. all of the above
8. What is a clue word for the effect of a sentence?
a. consequently
b. therefore
c. as a result
d. all of the above
9. Describe what conflict is.
10. Describe the difference between external and internal conflict.
11. What are three types of external conflict a writer may use in a story?
12. What are four ways authors help readers visualize/understand their characters in a
book?
Read the following passage and then answer the questions that follow.
from “How Becky Garza Learned Golf”
by Gary Soto
Dona Carmen Maria reached for one of the clubs in the bag. She said it was like a
sword. She poked at the air and laughed to herself.
Becky didn’t smile. She was hot, thirsty, and uneasy with the old woman who again
started to play with the mole on her throat. But Becky’s parents had always taught her to
respect elders. And she had to respect Dona Carmen Maria because, if not, Becky feared
the old woman would walk down the street and report her incivility. Becky could see herself
grounded until she was as old as Dona Carmen Maria herself.
13. This story is told in _______________ point of view.
a.
b.
c.
d.
First person
Second person
Third person limited
Third person omniscient
2
14. Who is the main character in this story?
a.
b.
c.
d.
Dona Carmen Maria
Becky’s parents
Becky
the golf instructor
15. What one type of conflict is the main character facing in this story?
a.
b.
c.
d.
Internal conflict
External conflict
Man vs. nature
Man vs. society
16. In the last line of this story, what form of figurative language is being used?
a.
Hyperbole
b. idiom
c. metaphor
d. personification
17. What two things are being compared in the first two sentences of this story?
a.
sword & old woman
b. sword & golf club
c. golf club & golf bag
18. What can we infer about Becky’s relationship with her parents?
a. she can’t stand them
b. she agrees with everything they say/do
c. she doesn’t always agree with them but doesn’t want to get in trouble
d. all of the above
Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
from “Phoenix Farm”
by Jane Yolen
So we got ready to head for Grandma’s farm up in the valley, with only the clothes
we’d been wearing; our cat, Tambourine; and Mama’s track medals, all fused together. She
found them when the firefighters let us go back upstairs to sort through things. Nicky
grabbed a souvenir, too. His old basketball. It was flat and blackened, like a pancake
someone left on the stove too long.
I looked around and there was nothing I wanted to take. Nothing. All that I cared
about had made it through the fire: Mama, Nicky, and Tam. It was as if we could start
afresh and all the rest of it had been burned away. But as we were going down the stairs –
3
the iron stairs, not the wooden ones inside, which were all gone – I saw the most surprising
thing. On the thirteenth step up from the bottom, tucked against the riser, was a nest. It
was unburnt, unmarked, the straw that held it the rubbed-off gold of a wheat field. A piece
of red string ran through it, almost as if it had been woven on a loom. In the nest was a
single egg.
It didn’t look like any egg I’d ever seen before, not dull white or tan like the eggs
from the store. Not even a light blue like the robin’s egg I’d found the one summer we’d
spent with Grandma at the farm. This was a shiny, shimmery gray-green egg with a red vein
– the red thread – cutting it in half.
19. What point of view is used in this story?
a.
b.
c.
d.
first person
third person
third person limited
third person omniscient
20. Who is the narrator of the story?
a.
b.
c.
d.
the
the
the
the
narrator
narrator
narrator
narrator
is not a character in the story
is a girl who is the main character
is a girl who is a minor character
is Nicky
21. After reading the first paragraph, what can you infer happened to the narrator?
a.
b.
c.
d.
he/she lost an egg
he/she cannot find what he/she is looking for
his/her house burned down
he/she has no place to live
22. What is type of conflict is this?
a.
b.
c.
d.
man vs.
man vs.
man vs.
man vs.
self
nature
man
society
23. “So we got ready to head for Grandma’s farm…, with only the clothes we’d been
wearing.” This is an effect of what unstated cause?
a.
b.
c.
d.
they had outgrown their clothes
they didn’t want to pack for vacation
they had an extra set at the farm
their other clothes had burned in the fire
4
24. What is the meaning of the word “fused” in the first paragraph (use context clues!).
a.
b.
c.
d.
melted together
sewn together
boxed up
awarded
Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.
Quilt
by Janet S. Wong
Our family
is a quilt
of odd remnants
Patched together
in a strange
pattern,
threads fraying,
fabric wearing thin –
but made to keep
its warmth
even in bitter
cold.
25. What figurative language is being used in this poem?
a.
Idiom
b. hyperbole
c. metaphor
26. What two items are being compared?
a.
quilt/cold
b. quilt/family
c. family/patterns
5
d. family/warmth