Name______GT______
Study Guide: Midterm Exam-Language Arts GT
- Be able to identify the main idea of a passage.
Main idea: ______the most important part
Example:______
- Be able to determine the tone/mood of a given passage.
Tone:___the way the author speaks/attitude towards a subject
Example:______
Mood: ______how the reader feels___
Example: ______
- Be able to identify elements of a authors purpose
Persuade
Inform
Entertain
- Be able to identify a simile, a symbol, a metaphor, or personification in a given passage.
- Simile:__a comparison using like or as
Example Shine bright like a diamond.
- Metaphor:____a comparison not using like or as
ExampleHer eyes were fireflies.
- Personification:_giving nonhuman things human characteristics
Example The dog whispered to me, “I love you.”
- Symbol: _an object that represents something
Example The American Flag
- Be able to identify the meaning of a word using context clues.
1. Synonym: a word of phrase that means the same thing
2. Antonym : a word or phrase that means the opposite
6. Be able to recognize whether a passage is being written in first person, second person, third person limited-omniscient, or third person omniscient.
a. 1st person: written from the character
Example I, me, my
B. 2nd person:written about someone
Example: you, your
C. 3rd person Omniscient the narrator knows everything
Example:he, she, they
D. 3rd person limited:the narrator and audience only know about one character
Example:he, she, they
7. Be able to identify in a given passage: flashback, foreshadowing and imagery.
A. Flashback: __inserting past events
B. Foreshadowing:_hinting at what is to come
C. Imagery: __using descriptive language to create a mental picture in the readers head
8. Be able to identify “bias” in a given passage.
Bias:__telling one side of the story or deliberately leaving something out
Example Explaining how someone yelled at you but not explaining it was because you threw a pencil at them.
9. Plot: Be able to label a plot diagram and understand the parts
10. A summary is a shortened version of a text that highlights its key points.
The primary purpose of a summary is to "give an accurate, objective representation of what the work says." As a general rule, "you should not include your own ideas or interpretations"
Objective: Show no bias, emotion, or opinion.
11. Conflict (Identify the types of conflicts)
1. Internal: A struggle occurring in a characters mind or with themselves.
Man v. _self__
2. External: A struggle between a character and an outside force such as nature or another character.
Man v. _man
Man v. _nature
Man v. _supernatural man vs. technology
Man v. __society______
12. Viewpoint:
13. Infer: to make a decision based on evidence or reasoning
If you speed, you will get in an accident.
14 Word Choice: the deliberate chose of words based on the intent of the writer and audience
15. Suspense: the sense of anticipation or worry that the author makes the reader feel
16. Argument and Claim (writing)
1. Argument: the main statement or point of which a writer will develop throughout their work
2. Claim: a statement that asserts something to be true
Cats are better than dogs.
3. Counterclaim: the opposite of the claim
However, many people say that cats are better than dogs.
4. Evidence: the support, facts used to defend your claim and argument
17. Setting: _____when and where_
18. Irony:a contradiction or incongruity between what is expected and what actually occurs
Types of Irony
- Verbal: the use of words to mean something different from what a person actually says.
- Dramatic : (This type of irony is popular in works of art such as movies, books, poems and plays) It occurs when the audience is aware of something that the characters in the story are not aware of.
- Situational: It involves a discrepancy between what is expected to happen and what actually happens. Situational irony occurs when the exact opposite of what is meant to happen, happens.An example would be when someone buys a gun to protect himself, but the same gun is used by another individual to injure him. One would expect that the gun would keep him safe, but it has actually caused him injury.
20. Basic grammar rules
21. Simple, complex, compound sentences
Simple: a sentence with one independent clause
He went home after class.
Complex: a sentence contains one independent clause and one dependent clause
She returned the computer after she notices it was damaged.
Compound: a sentence with at least two independent clauses joined by a comma, semicolon, or conjunction.
I think I will buy the blue car, or I will lease the blue one.
22. Subject-verb agreement:
Rule 1. A subject will come before a phrase beginning with of. This is a key rule for understanding subjects. The word of is the culprit in many, perhaps most, subject-verb mistakes.
Rule 2. Two singular subjects connected by or, either/or, or neither/nor require a singular verb.
Rule 3. The verb in an or, either/or, or neither/nor sentence agrees with the noun or pronoun closest to it.
Rule 4. As a general rule, use a plural verb with two or more subjects when they are connected by and.
Rule 5. In sentences beginning with here or there, the true subject follows the verb.
23. Rules for Commas:
24. Rules for Punctuation: Periods, commas, exclamation points
25. Rules for Capitalization: