Odisha BSE HSC English (FLE) flashcards

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

Skimming versus scanning

Skimming means reading quickly for the general idea of a passage. Scanning means moving the eyes rapidly to locate one specific word, number, or fact without reading surrounding text.

Inference in comprehension

A conclusion drawn from clues in the passage rather than stated directly. A valid inference must be supported by specific words in the text, never by outside knowledge alone.

Vocabulary in context

A question type asking for the meaning of a word as it is used in a particular passage. The correct option fits the sentence even if it is not the word's most common meaning.

Topic sentence

The sentence that states the main idea of a paragraph, usually placed first. Remaining sentences support it with explanation, example, or evidence. It controls the paragraph's unity.

Formal letter register

Impersonal tone, full forms instead of contractions, no slang, and a clear subject line. Used when writing to officials, editors, or institutions, closing with Yours faithfully or Yours sincerely.

Notice format

The word NOTICE at the top, issuing organisation's name, date, a short heading, a body of about forty to fifty words, and the writer's name with designation. Written impersonally, in present or future time.

Report writing features

A headline, a byline naming the reporter, and a first paragraph answering what, where, when, who, why, and how. The body uses past tense and third person throughout.

Cohesive devices

Linking words and phrases such as however, therefore, moreover, and on the other hand that connect sentences and show the relationship between ideas. They earn marks for coherence in composition.

Active to passive voice

The object of the active sentence becomes the subject. The verb becomes a form of be plus the past participle, and the original subject moves into a by-phrase or is dropped.

Reported speech backshift

After a past reporting verb, present becomes past, past becomes past perfect, and will becomes would. Time and place words also shift: now to then, here to there, tomorrow to the next day.

Third conditional form

Used for unreal past situations. The if-clause takes the past perfect and the main clause takes would have plus past participle, as in: if it had rained, we would have stayed.

Subject-verb agreement traps

A phrase between subject and verb does not change the verb's number. Each, every, either, and neither take singular verbs, and news, mathematics, and physics are treated as singular.

Article use with vowel sounds

A and an are chosen by sound, not spelling. An hour and an honest man take an because the h is silent; a university and a European take a because the sound is consonantal.

Fixed preposition collocations

Verb and adjective pairs memorised as units: depend on, insist on, capable of, married to, good at, afraid of, congratulate on, abide by, and prefer to. Prepositions cannot be guessed by logic.

Word formation by suffix

Changing a word's part of speech by adding a suffix: beauty to beautiful to beautifully, or decide to decision. The sentence slot decides which form is required before you choose.

Cloze passage strategy

Read the entire passage once before filling any blank, because later sentences often reveal the tense, number, or meaning needed in earlier gaps. Then check each choice in its sentence.

Characterisation with evidence

Describing a character by naming a trait and supporting it with a specific incident from the text. Adjectives alone, without textual proof, do not earn full marks in literature answers.

Narrator versus author

In first-person prose the narrator is a created voice, not necessarily the writer. Attributing the narrator's opinions to the author is a common error in interpretation questions.

Theme statement structure

A one-line naming of the central idea, followed by two separate episodes from the text showing how that idea is developed. The evidence carries most of the marks.

Value-based prose question

A question asking what lesson the text teaches and how it applies to real life. Full marks require both the stated lesson and a brief, concrete application.

Simile and metaphor

A simile compares using like or as; a metaphor states that one thing is another without such words. Both must be quoted from the poem and explained for their effect.

Personification in poetry

Giving human qualities, feelings, or actions to non-human things, as when a breeze whispers or a road sleeps. It must be identified with a quoted line and its effect explained.

Alliteration and onomatopoeia

Alliteration repeats initial consonant sounds in nearby words; onomatopoeia uses words that imitate sounds, such as buzz or crash. Both are sound devices tied to the poem's mood.

Rhyme scheme notation

Lines ending in the same sound receive the same letter, so alternating rhymes give abab and paired rhymes give aabb. Mark the final stressed syllable of each line before assigning letters.

Stanza forms and lengths

A couplet has two lines, a tercet three, a quatrain four, a sestet six, and an octave eight. A sonnet is fourteen lines, usually arranged as three quatrains and a couplet or an octave and sestet.

Tone versus mood

Tone is the poet's attitude towards the subject; mood is the feeling created in the reader. Both are answered with an adjective plus the words in the poem that produce it.

Blank verse and free verse

Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter with a regular metre. Free verse has neither fixed metre nor rhyme scheme. Naming the wrong form loses the identification mark.

Symbol in a poem

An object that stands for a larger idea, such as a caged bird for confinement. A complete answer names the object, states what it represents, and justifies it from context.

Plot sequence in longer fiction

The order of key events from exposition through turning point to resolution. Questions often ask you to arrange incidents, so link each event to the stage of the story it belongs to.

Types of conflict

Person against person, person against society, or person against self. Identify the type and cite the episode that demonstrates it; the classification alone is incomplete.

Chapter title significance

A two-part answer: the literal meaning of the title, then its connection to the main theme or central character. Titles frequently work as symbols rather than summaries.

Review-style response

A recommendation about the longer text supported by a specific reason drawn from character, plot, or theme. General praise such as very interesting earns no credit without textual support.