TASC English Literature flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Main idea

The central point a whole passage develops and supports. It must cover all major parts of the text, unlike a detail, which supports only one part.

Valid inference

A conclusion the text plus ordinary reasoning requires, rather than merely allows. If reasonable alternate explanations survive, the inference is too weak for a correct answer.

Scope test

A strategy for eliminating answer choices that are too broad, too narrow, or accurate but unrelated to the question. The correct choice matches the exact scope of what is asked.

Vocabulary in context

Determining a word's meaning from surrounding sentences. Substitute each candidate meaning into the sentence and keep only the one preserving the passage's logic.

Paired-passage relationship

The logical connection between two passages on one topic: agreement, qualification, or direct opposition. Identify each author's claim before classifying the link.

Theme

An implied claim about life or human nature that a work as a whole supports. A topic like love or death becomes a theme only when stated as an assertion.

Textual evidence

Specific words, images, or events from the work that support an interpretive claim. Summary alone does not count as evidence for a reading.

Dramatic irony

A gap between knowledge and awareness in which the audience understands a situation that a character does not, so the character's words carry unintended meaning.

Verbal irony

A speaker says one thing while meaning the opposite, often detectable through tone, context, or an obvious mismatch between statement and situation.

Allusion

An unexplained reference to another text, person, or event that assumes reader knowledge. Recognizing it adds a layer of meaning beyond the surface statement.

Implied author

The persona or sensibility a reader infers from the whole work, distinct from the real writer and from any narrator, whose views may be limited or unreliable.

Climax

The turning point of highest tension where the central conflict reaches its decisive moment. Events after it constitute falling action and resolution.

Indirect characterization

Revealing a character's traits through speech, actions, thoughts, appearance, or other characters' reactions, rather than through direct statements by the narrator.

Point of view

The narrative perspective: first person uses I; limited third stays within one character's perceptions; omniscient third moves among many characters' minds.

Dynamic character

A character who undergoes a meaningful change in understanding or values, usually revealed through choices made under pressure rather than through stated description.

Foreshadowing

Hints planted earlier that prepare readers for later events. Effective twists are set up this way so the outcome feels earned rather than arbitrary.

Setting function

The role place and time play beyond backdrop: establishing mood, constraining characters' choices, mirroring inner states, or embodying social forces.

Iambic pentameter

A metrical line of five iambs, each an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, producing ten syllables and a rising rhythm typical of English verse.

Shakespearean sonnet

A fourteen-line poem in three quatrains and a closing couplet, rhyming ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, where the couplet often sharpens or reverses the preceding argument.

Enjambment

The continuation of a sentence past a line break without punctuation. It speeds pace and creates suspense, unlike an end-stopped line that pauses.

Synecdoche

A figure substituting a part for a whole or a whole for a part, as in hands for workers. It differs from metaphor, which asserts identity rather than substitution.

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words, as in fleet feet sweep. It shapes rhythm and mood without requiring identical consonants.

Speaker versus poet

The voice constructed to utter a poem, who may differ from the writer in situation, belief, and tone. Identify the speaker before assigning the poem's theme.

Soliloquy

An extended speech delivered by a character alone on stage, revealing inner thoughts to the audience rather than to other characters present in the scene.

Aside

A brief remark a character speaks that other characters on stage do not hear, giving the audience privileged access to hidden information or intent.

Hamartia

A tragic hero's error in judgment or inherent flaw that, combined with circumstance, produces a reversal of fortune and subsequent suffering.

Subtext

Meaning implied beneath spoken dialogue, conveyed through action, hesitation, or stage business. Characters often mean more than their lines state outright.

Rhetorical appeals

The persuasive strategies ethos, pathos, and logos, appealing respectively to credibility, emotion, and logic. Nonfiction analysis identifies which appeal dominates a passage.

Tone versus mood

Tone is the speaker's attitude toward the subject or audience; mood is the emotional atmosphere the text creates in the reader. The two often differ.

Syntax and pace

Sentence structure controls speed. Short clipped sentences accelerate and create tension; long periodic sentences slow reading and build formality or suspense.

Juxtaposition

Placing contrasting elements side by side so the contrast itself generates meaning, highlighting differences in character, setting, or value.

Connotation

The emotional or cultural associations a word carries beyond its dictionary meaning. Choosing gaudy over vivid changes attitude while describing a similar appearance.

Euphemism

A softened expression substituted for a harsh or blunt one, such as passed away for died. The choice reveals a speaker's attitude toward the subject.