NB Grade 10 FI Reading flashcards
NB Grade 10 FI Reading · Build recall with a focused review session.
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 text makes about its topic, usually stated in the introduction or conclusion and supported by every paragraph.
- Supporting detail
- A fact, example, statistic, or reason that explains or proves the main idea; it answers who, what, when, where, or how much rather than what the text argues overall.
- Text structure: cause and effect
- An organization that links reasons to results, signalled by words such as because, therefore, since, and as a result.
- Author's purpose
- The reason an author writes a text, usually to inform, explain, persuade, entertain, or instruct; the purpose shapes the tone and the kind of evidence used.
- Explicit versus implicit
- Explicit information is stated directly in a sentence; implicit information is suggested by details and must be inferred by the reader.
- Objective summary
- A brief restatement of the main idea and key supporting points in the reader's own words, with examples and personal opinion left out.
- Climax
- The turning point of a story where tension peaks and the outcome of the central conflict becomes inevitable; it is not simply the final event.
- Internal conflict
- A struggle that takes place inside a character's mind, such as a choice between duty and desire, rather than against an outside force.
- Indirect characterization
- Revealing a character's traits through speech, actions, thoughts, appearance, or other characters' reactions, so the reader draws the conclusion.
- Third-person limited point of view
- A narrator outside the story who reports the thoughts and feelings of one character only, using he, she, or they.
- Theme
- A complete statement about life or human nature that a whole story supports; a single word such as friendship names a topic, not a theme.
- Setting
- The time, place, and social conditions of a story, which can establish mood, foreshadow events, or reflect a character's inner state.
- Foreshadowing
- A hint early in a text about something that will happen later, often delivered through a detail, comment, or change in mood.
- Symbol
- An object, person, or event that stands for a larger idea beyond its literal meaning, such as a caged bird representing confinement.
- Tone versus mood
- Tone is the author's attitude toward the subject, shown through word choice; mood is the emotional atmosphere the reader experiences while reading.
- Context clue: contrast
- A signal word such as but, unlike, or however that tells the reader an unfamiliar word means the opposite of a nearby known word.
- Denotation versus connotation
- Denotation is a word's dictionary meaning; connotation is the emotional shading it carries, which can make two synonyms feel very different.
- Prefix meaning not
- Un-, in-, dis-, and non- attach to a base word to reverse or negate its meaning, as in unfair, invisible, disagree, and nonstop.
- Suffix and part of speech
- Endings such as -tion, -ous, -ize, and -ly signal whether a word works as a noun, adjective, verb, or adverb in a sentence.
- Subject-verb agreement
- A verb must match its subject in number; interrupting phrases are ignored, and with or or nor the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
- Comma splice
- An error that joins two independent clauses with only a comma; it is repaired with a period, semicolon, or a coordinating conjunction.
- Dangling modifier
- A descriptive phrase whose intended subject is missing from the sentence, as in Walking home, the rain started, where rain cannot walk.
- Inference
- A conclusion drawn from explicit details combined with background knowledge; it must be supported by the text, not by personal preference.
- Prediction
- A reasoned guess about what will happen next, based on established patterns, foreshadowing, and what motivates the characters.
- Generalization
- A broad statement about a group or pattern; it is valid only when several details across the text support it, not one example.
- Reading tone from word choice
- Attitude is inferred from connotation, punctuation, sentence length, and the balance of positive and negative words rather than from one statement.
- Inferring an unstated cause
- When an effect is stated but its cause is not, the cause is recovered from event order and contrast cues showing what changed.
- Unsupported but true distractor
- An answer choice that is accurate in real life yet has no evidence in the passage; it must be eliminated because the question asks about the text.
- Defensible claim
- A specific, arguable statement that a text can support with evidence; a plain fact is not a claim because no one could debate it.
- Evidence and commentary
- A short quotation or paraphrase followed by an explanation of how it supports the claim; a quotation alone is not analysis.
- False cause
- A reasoning error that assumes one event caused another simply because it happened first, mistaking sequence for causation.
- Either/or thinking
- A reasoning flaw that presents only two options when more exist, forcing a choice between extremes and ignoring middle positions.
- Load-bearing counterargument
- The strongest opposing view, which a critical response states fairly, concedes where valid, and then explains why the main claim still holds.