NES English Language Arts (ELA) (301) Practice Test

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• Which 19th-century English philosopher and civil servant contributed to liberalism?
• Which term makes a claim and tries to convince the reader of correctness, often exaggerated and emotional?
• What term describes a verb acting as a noun?
• Which noun type refers to a substance that cannot be counted individually, such as 'water' or 'sand'?
• Which author is associated with the Nationalist Period (1828-1836) in American literature?
• Which term describes a base form that can stand alone as a word?
• Which term describes a scientific timeline used to organize events in order?
• Which technique uses words that sound alike or have multiple meanings for humor?
• Which term describes specialized vocabulary used to build characters?
• Which Norwegian playwright applied real social issues in his plays, often set in a small coastal town facing economic hardship?
• A morpheme that can stand alone as a word is called a:
• Which term describes fictional stories with kernels of truth and exaggerated, improbable events?
• Which term describes addressing a person directly in the sentence?
• Which metrical foot is long-short, dum-da?
• Which statement best describes universal grammar?
• Which form of traditional verse is associated with cowboys and southern Appalachian communities and uses repetition to emphasize the common person?
• Which term refers to a narrative that is longer than a short story but shorter than a novel, often serialized?
• Which tradition uses animals to convey folk wisdom, with Aesop and La Fontaine being popular?
• Which term describes using a thing to refer to something closely related, such as 'nice ride' meaning nice car?
• Which term describes the American formalist movement emphasizing close reading over contextual studies?
• Which metrical foot is long-short-short?
• Which term describes repetition of consonant sounds anywhere in words?
• Which language family includes German, Dutch, Austrian, Swedish, and English?
• Which metrical foot is described as short-short?
• Which term describes informal, vernacular language?
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez is associated with which literary movement?
• Which term describes those writings valued for message and beauty of form and emotional impact?
• Which narrative technique blends a character's inner thoughts with the narrator's voice, commonly described as free indirect speech?
• Which term is the thought presented aloud by a character alone, common in plays?
• Which period features Shakespeare as a key figure?
• Which determiner identifies a specific noun and includes words like 'the'?
• Which statement best describes the relationship between denotation and connotation?
• Which term describes long oral poetry with evolving additions across generations, invoking muses and telling culturally familiar tales?
• In the 19th century, which movement promoted individual intuition and living in harmony with nature as a state beyond empirical sense?
• Which metrical foot is described as short-short-long?
• Which term names a modern literary/art movement characterized by anti-materialism and a focus on emotional, subjective interpretation?
• Which historical period features writers such as Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and John Adams?
• Which term means the emotional release achieved through art?
• Which term refers to a foot that is short-long?
• Which term refers to a genre of fiction set during real historical events?
• Which literary device is exemplified by the frame narrative of a main story containing several embedded tales?
• Which term refers to the repetition of vowel sounds?
• Which period emphasizes order, reason, and rules; humans are limited and imperfect; value intellect over emotion and society over the individual?
• Which period emphasizes order, reason, and rules and places value on intellect over emotion and society over the individual?
• Which metrical foot is described as short-long, da-dum?
• The Age of Johnson (ca. 1750-1790) is commonly associated with which period?
• Which figure of speech gives human traits to nonhuman things?
• In the Divine Comedy, the seven Terraces in Purgatory represent levels of what?
• A determiner is best described as:
• What term describes a solemn poem about death, often reflecting on a specific person?
• Which term describes a sentence where the expected grammatical sequence is absent, as in 'While in the garden, the door banged shut'?
• Which term describes an imperfect rhyme with different vowels?
• Which movement focuses on observations of daily life, especially among the middle and lower classes, valuing objectivity over sentimentality?
• Which term describes a series of words containing the same consonant sound on stressed syllables?
• Which category is associated with tales that combine animal and human features to convey folk wisdom and includes Ananse and Aesop?
• Which term is a French lyric poem, 19 lines long (5 tercets and 1 quatrain)?
• Which determiner describes a noun that can be used without a determiner, such as 'food'?
• The Canterbury Tales is best described as which type of narrative structure?
• Which term describes an expression whose meaning cannot be predicted from the individual words?
• Who wrote The Red Badge of Courage?
• The process of analyzing a literary work by examining its meaning, plot, characters, and style is called:
• Which English Romantic poet used common speech in poetry?
• Which term describes language more commonly used in writing, more impersonal and professional?
• Which term is a set of visual organizers used to show how topics are similar or different?
• Which term refers to the form of writing that recognizes multiple perspectives but sees one as being better?
• In theatre, a line spoken by a character to the audience or to an unseen character is called an
• Which term describes a memory technique used to help remember information, often in the form of an acronym or phrase?
• Which term describes a narrative longer than a short story but shorter than a novel, often serialized?
• Which term refers to two consecutive lines of verse that usually rhyme and have the same meter?
• Whimsical or serious use of the unreal or magic in the real world describes which genre?
• Which novel depicts Long Island's upper class during the Jazz Age?
• Which term describes a sentence that has one subject and one predicate and expresses a complete thought?
• Which term refers to predicting future events?
• Which term would be used to analyze a policy's outcomes and effectiveness?
• Which device involves deliberate exaggeration for emphasis?
• Which movement is characterized as 1950s-60s American counter-culture poetry?
• A character thinking aloud when by oneself, typically in plays.
• Which term describes sounds that are the same?
• Which term refers to prose that can be quickly read, usually in a single sitting?
• Who authored The Divine Comedy?
• A lyrical, emotional poem in praise of someone or something is called an
• Which term describes writing whose purpose is to explain something?
• Which term focuses on detailed depiction and sensory description of people, places, or things?
• Which author experimented with novels that show the negative after effects of the Civil War in the South?
• Which term describes a morpheme that cannot stand alone as a word?
• Which term describes a character speaking to the audience or to another character while the other characters on stage are unaware?
• A literary form that tells a story using metered verse is called what?
• What figure of speech replaces something with an abstract, symbolic, representative image?
• Which anthropologist and folklorist included dialect and dying cultures in her works, including Their Eyes Were Watching God and Jonah's Gourd Vine?
• What is the name for a sentence that contains an independent clause and a dependent clause?
• A literary work that critiques society by presenting a bleak, oppressive or negative future is best described as what?
• Which period of American literature runs roughly from 1828 to 1836 and includes authors such as James Fennimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?
• Which American writer analyzed the experiences of Black women in a male-dominated white society?
• Which period spans the 14th-17th centuries and includes the rebirth of classical art and writing, as well as the rise of humanist philosophy, science, and a shift away from religious politics, with Shakespeare as a key figure?
• The emotional or associative meaning a word carries beyond its literal sense is its:
• Which 19th-century American philosopher and poet led the transcendentalist movement and preached self-reliance and the Over-Soul?
• Which sentence type is defined as a sentence with one independent clause and at least one dependent clause?
• The literal or dictionary meaning of a word is its:
• Which relative pronoun is typically used as the subject of a clause?
• Which term refers to a memory aid used to recall a sequence or set of rules?
• British literature from 1945 to the present is associated with which movement?
• What type of antonyms describes the relationship between two objects, such as husband and wife, or teacher and student?
• Which scholar's name is associated with the concept of universal grammar?
• Which term involves the repetition of vowel sounds?
• Which author is associated with works such as Julius Caesar and King Lear?
• Which diagram is indicated as representing relationships with a central main idea and branching connections?
• Which term describes a long narrative about heroes and journeys?
• Pantisocracy is described as which of the following?
• Which determiner includes 'neither' and 'either'?
• Which English writer is credited as the first practitioner of the novel and helped popularize the form in Britain?
• Which term names the combined period that covers both Ancient and Classical eras?
• What figure of speech is described as the use of a single word in two different senses at once?
• Which mapping method starts with small focal points at the top and widens to the overall resolution?
• What term refers to the noun or pronoun that a pronoun refers to?
• Which term means ‘told from the narrator's point of view, using I or me’?
• Which term denotes short-long, pentameter = 5 meters, or 10 feet?
• Which term describes the use of understatement involving negative terms, often used for insults?
• Which author is most associated with 'universal grammar'?
• Who wrote The Great Gatsby?
• What term describes a form used to compare two nouns or pronouns?
• Events leading to climax.
• Which 20th-century English writer is known for stream-of-consciousness and novels like To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway?
• Which 1920s movement used surprising juxtapositions and non sequiturs as expressions of philosophy?
• The Three Musketeers is set in which century?
• Which term refers to dignified and elaborate speech used for pretentious characters or for humor/satire?
• Which sentence type is used to give commands or requests?
• Who is the author of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man?
• Which term means foretelling or predicting future events?
• Which 19th-century author wrote The House of the Seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter?
• In the context of sentence types, which describes a condition and its result, typically introduced by if?
• The set of rules that govern how words are arranged to form meaningful sentences is called:
• Which term analyzes impact of something, such as policy choices?
• Which term is a type of writing that forecasts outcomes based on data and experiments?
• Which type of reasoning uses general premises to reach a logically certain conclusion?
• Which term is a Japanese poem of five unrhymed lines with a 5-7-5-7-7 pattern?
• Which literary device uses 'like' or 'as' to compare two unlike things?
• The concept of universal grammar is most closely associated with which linguist?
• Which term describes a nonbiased appraisal using evidence to form conclusions about an author's reasoning?
• A stanza or complete poem consisting of four lines is called what?
• In a tree diagram, which part represents the main idea?
• Which term describes writing that uses natural language and a straightforward structure rather than verse?
• Which term is used to compare and contrast topics?
• Which suffix tends to mark tense or number, such as plural -s?
• Which term describes a morpheme that cannot stand alone as a word?
• The Canterbury Tales employs which narrative device?
• Which sentence type expresses strong emotion and is marked by an exclamation?
• Which term argues a point and aims to persuade readers?
• Which term describes purging of emotions through art?
• In a plot pyramid described in the material, what is located at the top?
• Which determiner is used to ask questions, such as 'What is this?'?
• Acquisition of a second language requires meaningful interaction - natural communication - in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding.
• Which sentence type consists of two or more independent clauses joined together without dependent clauses?
• Which term is a French lyric poem often described as a 19-line form?
• Which term describes a modifying word that references a precise noun?
• A brief account that emphasizes a single moment, or provides insight into plot, ideas, or characters.
• Which author on the list is noted for satire, political pamphlets, and also as an artist and cleric?
• Which literary period, roughly 1900-1940, includes the Harlem Renaissance as part of its development?
• What is the term for a sentence that contains two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses?
• Which movement arose in Harlem, New York, as an African American cultural movement?
• Anonymous fiction from oral tradition that presents or explains the supernatural is called a what?
• Which sonnet form is known for its octave and a turn, often rhyming ABBAABBA with a varied sestet?
• Which term is a three-line Japanese poem with a 5-7-5 syllable pattern?
• Which author is primarily associated with Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn?
• Which term refers to language that evokes sensory experience?
• Which author is best known for Great Expectations and for social critique of Victorian society?
• Helps maintain reader interest by creating intensity and anticipation.
• Which term describes the study of word formation and structure?
• Which word commonly introduces an adjective clause?
• Which term names 17th-century poetry that questions the nature of the mind and existence?
• Who is the American Gothic writer credited with creating the detective tale and whose narrators often become villains?
• What term means words that have the same meaning?
• Which term describes words that imitate sounds?
• In literature, what is the term for the hero or main character?
• What type of antonyms have no gradient and are absolute opposites?
• Which concept posits an innate grammar structure shared across humans?
• Which form features mischievous spirits and trickster figures?
• Which type of text explains why something happens or shows a chain of events, often using signal words?
• Who proposed universal grammar?
• Which term describes words that are spelled the same but have different meanings?
• What type of antonyms describe a continuous spectrum, such as slow to fast?
• Which term uses the part to refer to the whole or vice versa, as in 'taste my steel'?
• Who is considered the father of magical realism and wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude?
• Which period includes writers such as Aesop, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Euripides, and Sophocles?
• Which term is most closely tied to excessive pride in tales?
• Which term describes a word that connects two independent clauses or sentences, such as accordingly?
• Which term describes a comparison showing relationships such as bear to mammal as tango to dance?
• Which term refers to grammatical markers that indicate tense, number, possession, or comparison?
• Which poetry tradition focuses on rustic life and nature?
• The term 'kafkaesque' is derived from which author?
• Which term forms a prediction based on research (like lab reports)?
• Which term describes a narrative device where the extended metaphor has two interpretations: the surface story and the deeper meaning?
• Which term describes images or situations reminiscent of Franz Kafka's works?
• Which author is often associated with surreal or illogical imagery and died of tuberculosis?
• Which term describes the narrative device that marks the crisis or peak of action?
• Which author was part of the Lost Generation and emphasized effects of war, loss of faith, and used understatement and cynicism?
• Which Anglo-Irish writer, famous for satire and political pamphlets, is listed as an artist and cleric?
• Which author is associated with 'kafkaesque' and died of tuberculosis?
• Which term describes the mood or atmosphere created by the author?
• Which term is used for a narrator telling the story from his or her own perspective using ‘I’ or ‘me’?
• The Classical Greek Period is also known as what?
• Which term would you use to describe a work that uses elevated language?
• Which term names the figure of speech that pairs two things for comparison?
• Which form of poetry is written in iambic pentameter without end rhymes?
• Onset of major conflict.
• Which term introduces characters and setting?
• Which word class includes demonstratives like 'this' and 'that'?
• Which term describes the study of language learning through meaningful interaction?
• Which term best describes the traditional narratives and beliefs of a culture?
• Which term refers to a long narrative about heroes and heroic deeds, often involving an ordinary person on a journey?
• Which term describes a situation where the opposite of what is expected occurs, and is undercut by others' actions?
• Which term describes repeating consonant sounds at the beginning of words?
• Which term means a short, quickly read prose piece that stands alone?
• What term describes words that join words, phrases, and independent clauses such as for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so?
• Pride and Prejudice centers on which heroine?
• What term is defined as the person the sentence is directed to?
• Which determiner is used for non-specific phrases, such as 'a book' or 'some water'?
• What is the smallest unit of meaning in language?
• Which genre is characterized by sensational plots and emotional appeal at the expense of detailed character development?
• The smallest unit of sound in a language that can distinguish meaning is a:
• Which term describes 14 lines with 3 quatrains and 1 closing couplet, usually in iambic pentameter?
• Which poetry tradition celebrates rural life and nature through elevated language and simplicity?
• The Over-Soul concept is associated with which transcendentalist thinker?
• Which Harlem Renaissance poet wrote with jazz-infused rhythm about urban African American life?
• Establishes setting and characters.
• Which term refers to specialized vocabulary used to develop characters in fiction?
• What is the term for a chart where a left-hand column lists category members and the remaining columns show features?
• Which collection by Samuel Taylor Coleridge consists of eight poems published between 1795 and 1807?
• Which term refers to a narrator with a compromised character, such as being a liar or insane?
• Which author is associated with the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties?
• Beowulf is from which historical period?
• Which author wrote Great Expectations and features the Satis House?
• Which term is a Japanese poem consisting of a five-line structure?
• The Patristic Period includes St. Augustine, Tertullian, Saint Cyprian, Saint Ambrose, and Saint Jerome, and spans roughly 70 CE to 455 CE. Which period is described?
• Frankenstein, often cited as the first science fiction novel, warns that science gives man the power to play God. Who wrote it?
• Which figure of speech makes an indirect reference to a well-known person or thing?
• Which term refers to a reference to a well-known person, place, or work?
• Which of the following is not a recognized metrical foot in poetry?
• Who wrote Julius Caesar and King Lear?
• Which period, dating roughly 1780–1840, celebrated nature and imagination and featured poets such as John Keats and Lord Byron?
• What is the smallest unit of meaning in language called?
• Pantisocracy is described as a utopian government based on egalitarian principles created by which two poets?
• The smallest unit of writing that can represent a sound in a language is a:
• Which term is writing like a stream of consciousness with no regard to organization?
• What is the term for a dependent clause that modifies a noun or pronoun and begins with a relative pronoun?
• Which term best describes a brief scene that highlights a single moment or insight?
• Which term refers to poetry written in regular meter (usually iambic pentameter) but without end rhymes?
• Which term means using knowledge of word meanings to understand a text?
• Which of the following best describes a frame tale?
• Which term is used to describe the author of Little Women?
• Which term investigates new areas through observation, interviews, focus groups, and surveys?
• In 19th-century literature, which movement emphasized environmental and social forces shaping character with no idealism and highlighted conflict between character and forces?
• Which term refers to words that are opposite in meaning?
• Excessive pride, Greek Tragedies
• Which term means the misleading of words or phrases, especially with alternate meanings?
• Which American writer is associated with Southern Gothic style and grotesque regional characters?
• Which author is listed among Realism examples in the material?
• Which term refers to an argument form that recognizes multiple perspectives but favors one?
• Which term refers to the discipline studying rhythm and meter in poetry?
• The Iliad and Odyssey are associated with which period?
• What term describes a character's struggle with external factors, such as another person or forces outside the self?
• Which determiner indicates possession, as in 'my book' or 'his idea'?
• Which term is associated with the body of traditional beliefs, stories, and customs of a culture?
• Which work is associated with Geoffrey Chaucer and is a cornerstone of English literature?
• Which term describes a group of words that sound the same but have different meanings (may or may not be spelled the same)?
• Which term describes an extended metaphor that reveals a hidden meaning, usually moral or political?
• The period from the 11th to the 13th century in Europe is known as the
• What term describes a single word or short phrase used to emphasize the words immediately proximate to the adverb and that typically interrupts normal syntax?
• In Poe's horror tales, narrators often reveal themselves as which character type?
• Which collection contains eight poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, published between 1795 and 1807?
• Which term refers to words that specify noun reference, such as this or the?
• In medieval literature, which author is connected with The Canterbury Tales and its frame tale?
• What term describes two conjunction words that create a relationship between clauses (not only ... but also, no sooner ... than, as/as, both/and, either/or)?
• Which term best describes the word group that links two independent clauses with a relationship such as cause and effect or contrast?
• Which term describes a sentence with two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction?
• Which term describes a contradiction that seems logical but is actually illogical?
• What term refers to words that have opposite meanings?
• Which term describes a sentence that contains only one independent clause and expresses a complete thought?
• What term describes a pun in which two words are mixed up?
• Which term describes an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the words themselves?
• What term describes a chart where the left-hand column lists category members and additional columns show features possessed or lacking by the members?
• Which term involves the repetition of consonant sounds anywhere in words?
• Which form of sonnet consists of an octave with ABBAABBA followed by a sestet with flexible rhyme schemes?
• Which word category includes quantifiers like 'many', 'most', and 'few'?
• Which type of reasoning uses specific observations to form general conclusions?
• Which term refers to the narrator's attitude toward the subject, or the emotional tone conveyed by the writer?
• In The Three Musketeers, which character is NOT one of the Three Musketeers Athos, Porthos, and Aramis?
• Which term refers to dependent/independent clauses and includes words like although, because, since?
• Which of the following is a novel by Zora Neale Hurston?
• Which reclusive 19th-century American poet experimented with free verse and focused on earthly and heavenly existence?
• Which term denotes a pretended, ironic refusal of something one wants?
• Which term is the ending in a narrative that reveals the final outcome?
• Which period includes Christianity influencing works, secular poetry, and Eastern cultures writing about heroes and demigods?
• Who authored The Three Musketeers?
• Which term means something that misleads or distracts from an important issue?
• Which term describes an ironic situation in which the people involved don't realize it is ironic?
• Which term denotes a long narrative, typically fictional and sequential, often associated with medieval romance?
• Which term describes referring to a whole by a part, or vice versa?
• What is a pair of lines in poetry that usually share the same meter and rhyme called?
• Which of the following is a signal word used to indicate cause and effect?
• Which term describes a descriptive label attached to a person or place that has become a cliché?
• Which metrical foot consists of a long syllable followed by two short syllables?
• Who is the 12th-13th century English poet regarded as the father of English literature?
• Which term uses figurative language to evoke a person or thing vividly?
• Which 19th-century American realist analyzed social issues such as slavery and industrialization, and wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn?
• Which term may explain, criticize, persuade, or praise?
• Which term covers a form of wordplay that relies on similar sounds?
• Ananse tales originate from the Asante people of which country?
• Which 19th-century American Gothic writer helped establish the short story genre in America and wrote The House of the Seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter?
• Which term describes reasoning that moves from specific observations to broad generalizations?
• Which term describes the sequence that builds toward the climax through increasing difficulties?
• Which category of poetry from the 17th century often explores existence and the nature of the mind?
• What term describes a word that has two meanings that are opposites, such as 'cleave' meaning cling and 'cleave' meaning split?
• Which sentence type states a fact or makes a statement?
• Who wrote Sonnets from the Portuguese?
• tells the story as it is happening to "you"
• Which term refers to the moment of greatest tension in a narrative?
• Which term describes tying up loose ends and closure?
• Which short narrative song, often sung, tells a simple, sentimental story?
• Which device makes a direct comparison by stating one thing is another?
• What term describes using the form or style of another author, generally in tribute?
• What term describes a story within a story structure as used by Canterbury Tales?
• Which author wrote Pride and Prejudice and critiqued the British gentry?
• Which term describes a struggle between a character and an outside force such as another character, society, or nature?
• Which relative pronoun is typically used as the object of a clause?
• Which term designates a genre that blends horror, death, and sometimes romance with fiction?
• What term denotes a sign that represents another idea, image, belief, action, or entity?
• Which term is two contradictory words used together?
• Who is the author of The Catcher in the Rye?
• Which term describes literature that uses unreal elements to explore human experiences and often critiques society?
• Which Harlem Renaissance poet used jazz rhythm and idiomatic phrases to depict African American urban life?
• Which period includes writers such as Ovid, Horace, Virgil, Marcus Aurelius, Lucretius, Cicero, and Quintilian?
• The study of the smallest units of grammar that have meaning is called what?
• Which term is often associated with legends about heroes and events rooted in a communal past, sometimes with exaggerated elements?
• Which term describes the turning point of a narrative, the highest point of tension?
• Which term describes a word that phonetically imitates the sound it describes?
• Which movement emphasizes naturalistic determinism, focusing on biology, environment, and social conditions shaping behavior?
• Which term corresponds to Little Women and Hospital Sketches?
• Which term emphasizes character, setting, conflict, and resolution to focus on story elements?
• Which term describes poetry that expresses personal emotions in a brief, often song-like form?
• Which 19th-century American writer is known for frontier life and wildlife in novels such as The Last of the Mohicans?
• Which movement is described as using open form and free verse and connected to post-WWI alienation, including the Lost Generation?
• Which figure of speech involves saying what is meant but not literally, often with opposite meaning?
• Which rhetorical device omits conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses to create the effect of multiplicity?
• In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Dedalus is described as the alter-ego of the author. What term describes this relationship?
• Which literary form uses animal characters and ends with a moral lesson?
• Which narrative poem, often set to music and consisting of two or more stanzas, tells a simple romantic or sentimental story?
• Which term describes substituting a mild or indirect term for a harsher one?
• Greatest point of tension.
• Which term is used to describe language that triggers sensory images in readers?
• Which term refers to affixes that change the function or meaning of a word, such as -ly, -ate, or -ion?
• What are the dates of the Heroic or Homeric Period?
• Which term refers to descriptions of places or people that have become commonplaces?
• Use of two themes, characters, phrases, or terms together for comparison?
• Which term describes a French poem of roughly 300-400 lines performed by medieval minstrels?
• The development of English was influenced by invasions and Christianization, bringing together which language groups?
• Which literary device involves addressing someone or something that is not present?
• Which device involves extreme exaggeration?
• Which term is a Japanese unrhymed poem with three lines following a 5-7-5 syllable pattern?
• Words or phrases that hints at events that will follow.
• Which genre includes the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Andersen as famous authors?