RBSE VU English flashcards
RBSE VU English · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Skimming
- A fast reading technique that looks at headings, topic sentences, and first or last lines to grasp the general idea of a passage without reading every word.
- Scanning
- A reading technique used to locate specific information such as a name, date, or number by moving the eyes quickly over the text without reading it fully.
- Inference
- A conclusion drawn from evidence in the text rather than stated directly; a valid inference must be supported by clues in the passage itself.
- Main idea
- The central point that a whole passage develops. It must cover every paragraph, unlike a detail that appears in only one part of the text.
- Tone
- The author's attitude toward the subject, revealed through word choice, and described with terms such as critical, sympathetic, ironic, neutral, or optimistic.
- Connotation
- The emotional or cultural association a word carries beyond its dictionary meaning; for example, childlike is positive while childish is negative.
- Affect versus effect
- Affect is usually a verb meaning to influence, while effect is usually a noun meaning a result. Confusing the two is a common usage error.
- Idiom
- A fixed expression whose meaning cannot be worked out from its individual words, such as a piece of cake, meaning something very easy.
- Collocation
- The habitual pairing of words in a language, such as make a decision or take an exam; an unnatural partner marks an error even when the meaning is clear.
- Prefix
- A letter group added before a root word to change its meaning, such as un- meaning not, re- meaning again, or pre- meaning before.
- Antonym
- A word with an opposite meaning to another word, such as legal and illegal, or literate and illiterate, often formed by adding a negative prefix.
- Subject-verb agreement
- The rule that a verb must match its subject in number; singular subjects such as each, everyone, and neither take singular verbs in the present tense.
- Passive voice
- A construction made of a form of be plus a past participle, used when the doer is unknown or unimportant, as in the letter was written yesterday.
- Reported speech
- Indirect quotation of someone's words, which shifts tense one step back and adjusts pronouns and time expressions, turning now into then.
- Relative pronoun
- A pronoun introducing a dependent clause that describes a noun: who for people, which for things, whose for possession, and that for defining clauses.
- Dangling modifier
- A participle phrase at the start of a sentence whose implied subject does not match the main clause subject, producing an illogical or unclear statement.
- Modal verb
- A helping verb expressing ability, permission, obligation, or possibility, such as can, may, must, should, and might, always followed by a base verb.
- Yours faithfully
- The formal letter closing used when the salutation is Dear Sir or Madam, that is, when the recipient's name is not known to the writer.
- Notice format
- A short public announcement headed NOTICE, giving the issuing institution, date, a bold title, a body under fifty words, and the writer's designation.
- Topic sentence
- The sentence, usually first in a paragraph, that states the controlling idea which the remaining sentences support and develop.
- Cohesive device
- A linking word or phrase such as however, therefore, or moreover that shows the relationship between ideas and holds a piece of writing together.
- Formal register
- A style of writing that avoids contractions, slang, and emotive exaggeration, using full verb forms and impersonal constructions suitable for official correspondence.
- Simile
- A figure of speech that compares two unlike things using like or as, for example as brave as a lion or cheeks like roses.
- Metaphor
- A figure of speech that states one thing is another without using like or as, transferring qualities directly, as in the classroom was a zoo.
- Personification
- A figure of speech giving human qualities to non-human things, such as the wind whispered through the trees or the sun smiled down.
- Rhyme scheme
- The pattern of end rhymes in a poem, labelled with letters so that abab means the first and third lines rhyme and the second and fourth rhyme.
- Iambic pentameter
- A metrical line of five iambs, each an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, giving ten syllables with alternating stress.
- Dramatic irony
- An irony in which the audience or reader knows something important that a character does not, so the character's words carry a second meaning.
- Communication cycle
- The sequence of sender, encoding, message, channel, receiver, decoding, and feedback, with noise able to interfere at any stage of the process.
- Semantic barrier
- A communication obstacle caused by language itself, including jargon, ambiguous wording, poor grammar, or words that carry different meanings for different people.
- Active listening
- A listening approach in which the receiver paraphrases, asks clarifying questions, and withholds judgement so that understanding is confirmed rather than assumed.
- Grapevine communication
- Informal communication that spreads through an organization's social network; it moves quickly but is unreliable, so decisions must travel through formal channels.