RBSE SS English Comp flashcards

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

Main idea of a passage

The central point covering the whole passage rather than one paragraph. It is usually stated in the opening or closing lines and is supported by every section.

Inference question

A question asking what the passage implies without stating it directly. The answer must be logically supported by textual clues, not by outside knowledge.

Vocabulary in context

Determining a word's meaning from surrounding words. Substitute each option into the sentence and keep only the one that preserves the original sense.

Tone versus mood

Tone is the writer's attitude towards the subject, shown through word choice. Mood is the feeling created in the reader. They often differ in ironic passages.

Formal letter layout

Sender's address, date, receiver's designation and address, subject, salutation, body, complimentary close, signature. Contractions and slang are avoided throughout.

Yours faithfully versus sincerely

Use 'Yours faithfully' when the salutation is 'Dear Sir/Madam' with no name. Use 'Yours sincerely' when the recipient is addressed by name.

Report writing features

Past tense, third person, factual sequence, headline and byline giving place and date. It answers what, where, when, who, why and how without personal opinion.

Topic sentence

The sentence that states the single controlling idea of a paragraph. All supporting sentences must relate to it, and it usually opens the paragraph.

Cohesive devices

Linking words that signal logical relations: however for contrast, therefore for result, moreover for addition, for example for illustration. They guide the reader through the argument.

Essay introduction and conclusion

The introduction states the position and previews the argument. The conclusion restates the position and summarises, adding no new evidence or fresh arguments.

Present perfect use

Has or have plus past participle, linking a past action to the present. Used with since, for, already, yet, ever and never, never with a finished past time.

Past perfect rule

Had plus past participle marks the earlier of two past actions. The later action takes simple past, so the order of events is clear.

Passive voice formation

A form of be plus the past participle. The active object becomes the subject, tense is preserved, and the agent is retained with 'by' only when relevant.

Indirect speech tense shift

Present becomes past, past becomes past perfect, will becomes would, can becomes could. Time and place words shift too: now to then, today to that day.

Reported yes/no question

Introduced by if or whether, with normal statement word order and no question mark. Example: He asked whether I had finished the work.

Defining relative clause

Gives essential information needed to identify the noun, takes no commas and may use that. Removing it changes the meaning of the sentence.

Non-defining relative clause

Adds extra information about an already identified noun. It is set off by commas and never takes that; only who, whom, whose or which.

Determiners some and any

Some is used in affirmative statements and offers; any in negatives and most questions. Both combine with plural or uncountable nouns.

Prepositions of time

In for months, years and parts of the day; on for days and dates; at for clock times and night. No preposition is used before last, next, this or every.

Prose conflict analysis

Identify the central struggle between characters or between a character and circumstances. The turning point where the conflict shifts usually carries the highest-value questions.

Character evidence rule

Character claims must be supported by a specific action or line of dialogue. A bare adjective such as brave or kind earns little credit without textual proof.

Participant narrator

A narrator who takes part in the story and so knows only what they witness or are told. This limits reliability and explains gaps in information.

Value-based literature answer

State a judgement about right or wrong first, then justify it with an incident or character decision from the text. Both parts are required.

Sonnet form

A fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter. The Shakespearean sonnet rhymes abab cdcd efef gg; the Petrarchan divides into an octave and a sestet.

Simile and metaphor

A simile compares using like or as; a metaphor states that one thing is another without a comparing word. Both transfer qualities from one domain to another.

Personification

Giving human qualities or actions to non-human things, as in a wind that whispers or a sun that smiles. It shapes mood and often carries symbolic weight.

Alliteration and assonance

Alliteration repeats initial consonant sounds; assonance repeats vowel sounds within nearby words. Both affect pace and emphasise particular images.

Rhyme scheme notation

Letters label line endings, so abab means lines one and three rhyme and lines two and four rhyme. The scheme is read from the first stanza.

Poetic inversion

A deliberate reversal of normal word order for rhyme, metre or emphasis. Restore ordinary order before paraphrasing the line's meaning.

Affect versus effect

Affect is usually a verb meaning to influence. Effect is usually a noun meaning result. Effect as a verb means to bring about, as in effect a change.

Prefix negation patterns

Un-, in-, im-, il-, ir-, dis-, non- and mis- all negate, but attachment is fixed by the stem: illegal, impossible, irregular, dishonest, misunderstand.

One-word substitution

A single word replacing a descriptive phrase: polyglot for a speaker of many languages, apiary for a place where bees are kept, misanthrope for a hater of people.

Fixed preposition collocations

Verbs and adjectives take set prepositions: depend on, comply with, consist of, averse to, capable of, prefer to, married to. Changing the preposition changes the meaning.