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English 30-1

English 30-1 · Worksheets

Literary devices

Ten questions of mixed difficulty, covering Literary devices. Print it, or work through it on screen — the answer key starts on its own page.

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Literary devices

English 30-1 · maddyhelps.com

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Circle the best answer for each question. Use the space to note the evidence or reasoning that decided it.

  1. In the phrase “a deafening silence,” the device is

    1. a) a paradox that resolves on reflection
    2. b) hyperbole
    3. c) an oxymoron, pairing contradictory words
    4. d) personification

  2. A symbol is best described as

    1. a) an exaggeration for emphasis
    2. b) the moral stated at the end
    3. c) a comparison using like or as
    4. d) something concrete that also stands for something abstract

  3. An allusion is a reference to

    1. a) the narrator's own past
    2. b) something that happens later in the text
    3. c) another text, person or event the reader is expected to recognize
    4. d) a repeated symbol

  4. A simile differs from a metaphor because a simile

    1. a) exaggerates for effect
    2. b) compares two unlike things
    3. c) compares using like or as
    4. d) gives human traits to an object

  5. A motif is

    1. a) a single striking image
    2. b) the central message of the text
    3. c) the sequence of events
    4. d) a recurring image or idea that develops a theme

  6. In the line “the city swallowed him whole,” the writer uses

    1. a) alliteration to slow the line
    2. b) a metaphor, presenting the city as something that consumes
    3. c) an allusion to a known story
    4. d) a simile comparing the city to a mouth

  7. Personification is

    1. a) giving human qualities to something not human
    2. b) a reference to another work
    3. c) an exaggeration for effect
    4. d) a comparison using like or as

  8. A writer uses a first-person narrator whose account contradicts other evidence in the story. This is

    1. a) dramatic irony created by the setting
    2. b) a flashback
    3. c) third-person omniscience
    4. d) an unreliable narrator, which makes the reader question the telling

  9. Foreshadowing is a technique in which a writer

    1. a) hints at something that will happen later
    2. b) addresses the reader directly
    3. c) interrupts to describe an earlier event
    4. d) repeats an image throughout a text

  10. Hyperbole is

    1. a) understatement for effect
    2. b) a contradiction in terms
    3. c) the repetition of consonant sounds
    4. d) deliberate exaggeration for effect

Answer key · Literary devices

English 30-1 · maddyhelps.com

  1. c) an oxymoron, pairing contradictory words — Two words that cannot both be true sit side by side: that is an oxymoron. A paradox is a longer statement that seems self-contradictory until you think it through, such as saying that less is more.
  2. d) something concrete that also stands for something abstract — A road, a scar, a locked door — the object stays real while also carrying an idea. A symbol that recurs across a whole text and gathers meaning is often called a motif.
  3. c) another text, person or event the reader is expected to recognize — Calling a decision someone's Achilles heel borrows a whole story in two words. Allusions work only if the audience catches them, which tells you something about who the writer imagines reading.
  4. c) compares using like or as — Both compare unlike things; the simile announces itself with like or as. Her voice was gravel is a metaphor; her voice was like gravel is a simile.
  5. d) a recurring image or idea that develops a theme — Motifs repeat: water, mirrors, hands. The repetition is the point, because it accumulates meaning that a single image could not carry.
  6. b) a metaphor, presenting the city as something that consumes — Nothing is literally swallowed and there is no like or as, so it is metaphor. The effect matters more than the label: the city becomes an active thing and he becomes helpless.
  7. a) giving human qualities to something not human — The wind clawed at the shutters gives the wind hands it does not have. Naming it is easy marks; saying what it does — making the storm feel deliberate and hostile — is the actual answer.
  8. d) an unreliable narrator, which makes the reader question the telling — The gap between what the narrator claims and what the text shows becomes the real subject. It forces the reader to read against the narration rather than through it.
  9. a) hints at something that will happen later — Foreshadowing plants a hint so a later event feels inevitable rather than random. Going back in time instead is a flashback.
  10. d) deliberate exaggeration for effect — I have told you a million times is not a lie; it is hyperbole, used to convey frustration. Its opposite, understatement, plays a big thing down for the same kind of effect.