5 Written Questions

1. expressing an idea with less emphasis or in a lesser degree than is the actual case. The opposite of hyperbole, employed for ironic emphasis.
2. a mocking imitation of a known person, literary work, movie, or event
3. a figure of speech that combines apparently contradictory or incongruous ideas
4. dropping from the sublime to the ridiculous for a bathetic effect.
5. harsh and abusive language directed against a person or cause

5 Matching Questions

1. juxtaposition
2. persona
3. reductio ad absurdum (noun)
4. irony
5. litotes

1. a a method of argument, which carries to an extreme, but logical conclusion, some general idea in order to show its falsity. For example: The more sleep one gets the healthier one is. Therefore, someone who has a sleeping sickness and sleeps for months or someone in a coma is really in the best of health.
2. b an ironic understatement in which affirmative is expressed by negating the opposite. Example: Einstein is not a bad mathematician.
3. c positioning side-by-side or close together mismatching elements, something resulting in comic incongruity
4. d the person created by the author to tell a story. Whether the story is told by an omniscient narrator or by a character in it, the actual author of the work often distances himself from what is said or told by adopting a persona--a personality different from his real one. Thus, the attitudes, beliefs, and degree of understanding expressed by the narrator may not be the same as those of the actual author. Some authors, for example, use narrators who are not very bright in order to create irony.
5. e a double meaning; verbal irony - a discrepancy between what is said and what is really meant (sarcasm); situational irony - what actually happens is opposite of what is expected or appropriate; dramatic irony - the audience or reader knows something important that a character does not know

5 Multiple Choice Questions

1. a statement which, because of its contradictory nature, seems absurd, but which really is well founded
   1. paradox
   2. parody
   3. sarcasm
   4. persona
2. repeating key words or phrases for comic emphasis
   1. repetition
   2. persona
   3. oxymoron
   4. juxtaposition
3. harsh or bitter derision or irony; a sharply ironical taunt; sneering or cutting remark
   1. persona
   2. paradox
   3. sarcasm
   4. parody
4. switching the situation to entrap the reader, after having lured him into a sense of comfort.
   1. entrapment
   2. understatement
   3. paradox
   4. persona
5. exaggeration and distortion of a literary epic and its style; elevating the trivial to a level higher than it deserves
   1. oxymoron
   2. mock heroic
   3. antithesis
   4. persona

5 True/False Questions

1. wit → a double meaning; verbal irony - a discrepancy between what is said and what is really meant (sarcasm); situational irony - what actually happens is opposite of what is expected or appropriate; dramatic irony - the audience or reader knows something important that a character does not know

   True        False

2. double entendre → a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first (the more obvious) meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so, often risqué, inappropriate, or ironic.

   True        False

3. hyperbole → exaggeration; overstatement; saying more than is meant, often to produce humor; use of superlatives sometimes involved

   True        False

4. burlesque (noun/verb) → a composition which derives its humor from an exaggerated imitation of a more serious work; a parody that ridicules a serious literary work by treating its solemn subject in an undignified style or by applying its elevated style to a trivial subject (mock-epic) - a person's actions may be burlesqued. Example: a King speaking like an idiot.

   True        False

5. caricature → an exaggerated representation of a character; a cartoon-like portrait in art in literature.

   True        False