Praxis Fundamental Subjects flashcards
Praxis Fundamental Subjects · 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.
- Main Idea
- The central point a passage is built to support. It covers the whole text, while details only illustrate or explain it.
- Simile
- A comparison between two unlike things using the words like or as, such as cheeks red as apples.
- Metaphor
- A direct comparison that states one thing is another without using like or as, such as the classroom was a zoo.
- Third-Person Omniscient
- A narrator outside the story who knows the thoughts, feelings, and motives of all characters and can report events anywhere.
- Independent Clause
- A group of words containing a subject and a verb that expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence.
- Ethos, Pathos, Logos
- The three persuasive appeals: ethos establishes the speaker's credibility, pathos targets audience emotion, and logos relies on logic and evidence.
- Phoneme
- The smallest unit of sound in spoken language. Changing one phoneme in a word can change its meaning, as in cat to bat.
- Order of Operations
- The sequence for evaluating expressions: parentheses, exponents, multiplication and division left to right, then addition and subtraction left to right.
- Slope Formula
- The slope of a line through two points equals the change in y divided by the change in x, written m = (y2 - y1)/(x2 - x1).
- Slope-Intercept Form
- The equation y = mx + b, where m is the slope of the line and b is the y-value where the line crosses the y-axis.
- Area of a Triangle
- Area equals one half times the base times the height, written A = ½bh, where height is perpendicular to the chosen base.
- Circumference of a Circle
- The distance around a circle, calculated as C = 2πr or C = πd, where r is radius and d is diameter.
- Percent Change
- The difference between new and old values divided by the old value, multiplied by 100, showing increase or decrease as a percentage.
- Median
- The middle value of a data set arranged in order. With an even count, it is the mean of the two middle values.
- Pythagorean Theorem
- In a right triangle, the square of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the legs: a² + b² = c².
- Probability of Independent Events
- When two events do not affect each other, the probability both occur is the product of their separate probabilities.
- Three Branches of Government
- Legislative (Congress) makes laws, executive (President) enforces laws, and judicial (courts) interprets laws, each checking the others.
- Bill of Rights
- The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, protecting freedoms such as speech, religion, press, assembly, and fair trial rights.
- Federalism
- A system dividing power between a national government and state governments, with federal law supreme when the two conflict.
- Checks and Balances
- Powers each branch holds to limit the others, such as a presidential veto or a court ruling a law unconstitutional.
- Push and Pull Factors
- Push factors drive people away from a place, such as war or famine; pull factors attract them, such as jobs or freedom.
- Primary Source
- A record created by someone who participated in or witnessed an event, such as a diary, letter, photograph, or artifact.
- Market Economy
- An economic system in which private individuals and businesses make decisions, with prices set by supply and demand rather than government.
- Latitude and Longitude
- Latitude lines run east-west and measure distance north or south of the equator; longitude lines run north-south from the prime meridian.
- Cell Theory
- The principle that all living things are made of cells, cells are the basic unit of life, and new cells come from existing cells.
- Photosynthesis
- The process in chloroplasts where plants use light energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen.
- Cellular Respiration
- The process in mitochondria that breaks down glucose to release usable energy, consuming oxygen and producing carbon dioxide and water.
- Newton's Second Law
- The acceleration of an object equals the net force acting on it divided by its mass, commonly written as F = ma.
- Atomic Number
- The number of protons in an atom's nucleus, which identifies the element and determines its position on the periodic table.
- Density
- Mass per unit volume, calculated as density equals mass divided by volume; denser objects sink in a fluid, less dense objects float.
- Water Cycle
- The continuous movement of water through evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, and collection or runoff on Earth's surface.
- Food Web
- A model of feeding relationships in an ecosystem, showing how energy flows from producers to consumers and is recycled by decomposers.