Assam ASSEB Higher Secondary English Exam flashcards

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

Skimming vs scanning

Skimming is fast reading for the general idea across a whole passage. Scanning is targeted reading to locate a specific fact, name, date, or number without reading intervening text.

Inference question

A comprehension item whose answer is implied but not stated in the passage. The correct option must follow necessarily from the text, not from general knowledge or personal opinion.

Tone versus mood

Tone is the writer's attitude towards the subject, revealed through word choice and punctuation. Mood is the feeling created in the reader. A passage may have a critical tone but a sombre mood.

Not-stated option

In comprehension, an option is 'not stated' when the passage is silent on it. Silence is different from contradiction: only contradiction makes an option false.

Pronoun antecedent

The noun a pronoun refers back to. To resolve it, match number and gender, prefer the nearest preceding suitable noun, and confirm that the resulting meaning fits the sentence logic.

Theme versus topic

A topic is a one-word subject such as ambition or poverty. A theme is a full statement about that subject, for example that ambition unchecked destroys the person who holds it.

Narrative point of view

The perspective from which a story is told: first person, third-person limited (one character's mind), or omniscient (access to all minds). It controls what information the reader can receive.

Author's purpose

The reason a text was written, usually to inform, persuade, entertain, or reflect. A speech typically persuades, an autobiographical essay typically reflects, and a news report typically informs.

Situational irony

A contrast between what is expected and what actually happens, as when a fire station burns down. It differs from verbal irony, which is saying the opposite of what is meant.

Context question method

A three-move answer: identify the speaker or actor, describe the situation in which the words occur, then explain why those words matter to the work's meaning.

Iambic pentameter

A line of five iambs. An iamb is one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable, so the line has ten syllables with stress on the even positions.

Petrarchan sonnet structure

Fourteen lines in two parts: an octave rhyming abbaabba presenting a problem, and a sestet with a varied rhyme scheme resolving or commenting on it, often at a turn called the volta.

Enjambment

The running on of a sentence past the end of a line or stanza without punctuation. It speeds the reading and can create suspense or the sense of overflowing emotion.

Oxymoron

A compressed paradox joining two contradictory words in one phrase, such as bitter sweet or living death. It forces the reader to hold two opposed ideas together.

Onomatopoeia

A word whose sound imitates the thing it names, such as buzz, hiss, or crash. It is a sound device, distinct from personification, which gives human qualities to non-human things.

Climax of a novel

The point of highest tension where the central conflict is decisively confronted. It is not necessarily the last chapter; falling action and resolution usually follow it.

Unreliable narrator

A first-person narrator whose account is limited, biased, or self-serving, so the reader must judge events against other evidence. The gap between claim and event produces irony.

Internal versus external conflict

Internal conflict is a struggle within a character's mind, such as duty against desire. External conflict is against another person, society, or nature. Novels usually combine both.

Function of setting

Setting is more than place and time: it shapes what characters can do, what society permits, and what the story's atmosphere suggests. Analysis should state this effect, not just describe scenery.

Formal letter closing

A formal letter addressed to Dear Sir or Madam ends with Yours faithfully. One addressed to a named person, Dear Mr Sharma, ends with Yours sincerely. The name is signed below.

Notice format essentials

Institution name at the top, the word NOTICE, the date, a short heading, a brief body giving what, when, where and whom to contact, then the issuer's name and designation.

Report writing tense

Reports on past events use the simple past and third person, with a heading, byline, and place-date line. Facts, causes, and consequences are separated into paragraphs rather than mixed.

Article structure

A title, a byline, an opening hook, two or three body paragraphs each developing one point with an example, and a closing paragraph offering a suggestion or call to action.

Subject-verb agreement: one of

In 'one of the + plural noun', the verb agrees with 'one' and is singular: one of the boys is absent. By contrast, 'a number of' takes a plural verb.

Third conditional form

If + past perfect, then would have + past participle, as in 'If she had studied, she would have passed.' It describes an unreal past situation and its imagined result.

Preposition collocation

Verbs and adjectives that take fixed prepositions: depend on, capable of, insist on, consist of, comply with, superior to, married to. These must be memorised, not reasoned out.

Phrasal verb meaning

A verb plus particle with an idiomatic sense: put off means postpone, give in means surrender, look into means investigate, and carry out means perform or complete.

One-word substitution

Replacing a phrase with a single word: a person who loves humanity is a philanthropist, one who hates humanity a misanthrope, and one who expects the best an optimist.

Active to passive rule

Make the object the new subject, change the verb to be plus past participle in the same tense, and add the original subject after 'by' or omit it if unimportant.

Reported speech tense shift

After a past reporting verb, present becomes past, present perfect becomes past perfect, and will becomes would. Time and place words shift too: now to then, here to there.

Simple to complex sentence

Convert a phrase or adjective into a subordinate clause: 'a rich man' becomes 'a man who is rich', and 'on arriving' becomes 'when he arrived'. Meaning stays unchanged.

Too-to transformation

Replace 'too + adjective + to + verb' with 'so + adjective + that + cannot': 'He is too weak to walk' becomes 'He is so weak that he cannot walk.' The sense stays negative.