Reading Skills
Fiction
Poetry
Figurative Language
Question Stems
100

This is the "voice" of a work; it refers to the narrator's perspective.

What is point of view?

100

This is the term for the character or force in conflict with the main character.

What is antagonist?

100

What is the name of the rhyme scheme used in this stanza?

Roses are red

Violets are blue

I hit my head

And threw up too

What is ABAB?

100

"Like burnt-out torches by a sick man's bed" What figurative language is being used?

What is a simile?

100

What TYPE of question is this:

Which statement best expresses the main theme of the excerpt?

What is theme?

200

This is the abbreviation for the three primary reasons that authors write - also tell what each letter stands for.

What is PIE, to persuade, inform, or entertain?

200

This term means the overall lesson or truth that you can learn from a literary work. 

What is theme?

200

What is the name for words that imitate sounds?

What is onomatopoeia?

200

"The leaves are little yellow fish swimming in the river." What figurative language is being used?

What is a metaphor?

200

What TYPE of question is this:

What are paragraphs 6 and 7 mainly about?

What is main idea?

300

In this point of view, the narrator is an observer, and can zoom in on the thoughts and emotions of multiple characters. 

What is third person omniscient?

300

This word means a written conversation between two or more characters and identifiable by quotation marks.

What is dialogue?

300

Barren branches pierce the sky,

Chattering in the shivering breeze.

The clouds hold captive

Rays of the gloomy sunshine.

Blades of grass brown and tattered

From frost’s sharp fingernails.

Winter squeezes the last breath

Out of all that once thrived. 


The mood the author creates in this poem could be described as...

What is gloomy (or another appropriate adjective)?

300

"The road was a ribbon of black in between fields of green." Why does the author compare the road to a "ribbon of black"

What is "it is wavy like a ribbon"? Or dark colored, etc.

300

What TYPE of question is this:

The author most likely wrote this passage to...

What is author's purpose?

400

List two of the most common text structures (organization) for nonfiction writing. (Can give one example if needed). 

What is author's cause/effect, problem/solution, compare/contrast, description, chronological, sequence of steps

400

A good summary of a text must include the important information from what three sections of s story?

What is BME (beginning, middle, and end)?

400

This term means a type of poetry that has no regular rhyme scheme or rhythm. 

What is free verse?

400

"When the stars threw down their spears, And water'd heaven with their tears," What figurative language is being used?

What is personification?

400

What TYPE of question is this:


What can the reader conclude about the author’s opinion of Washington’s strategy for information-gathering?

What is inference?

500

This is the word for the writer's or speaker's attitude toward a subject of a poem, story, or other literary work.

What is tone?

500

List the five parts of the plot diagram. 

What is exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution?

500

"The Base Stealer"

Poised between going on and back, pulled


Both ways taut like a tightrope-walker,


Fingertips pointing the opposites,


Now bouncing tiptoe like a dropped ball



In these four lines there are two examples of which type of figurative language?

What is simile?

500

"Being famous is a bee. It has a song -- It has a sting --" Why does the author compare being famous to a bee?

What is "it has positive and negative qualities"?

500

How does the author’s purpose for writing in “Dear Fellow Writer” differ from the poet’s purpose in “What the Page Says”?

To answer this question, you will need to __________ and ______________.


What is "compare and contrast"?