01 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, and never got uncoiled.”
Charles Dickens, Hard Times
Which technique is used in “interminable serpents of smoke”?
- AOxymoron
- BMetaphor
- COnomatopoeia
- DSimile
Show the answer
Answer: B Metaphor
The smoke is called serpents with no “like” or “as”, so it is a metaphor. Snakes are dangerous and coil endlessly, which fits the smoke that “never got uncoiled”: the town is choked and threatened by its own industry.
02 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“the piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness.”
Charles Dickens, Hard Times
Which technique is used in this line?
- AOxymoron
- BMetaphor
- COnomatopoeia
- DSimile
Show the answer
Answer: D Simile
The engine is compared to an elephant using “like”, which makes it a simile. A sad, mad elephant nodding up and down for ever suggests work that is repetitive and miserable, and “melancholy madness” repeats the m sound to stress it.
03 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city.”
Charles Dickens, Bleak House
Which technique does Dickens use most in this line?
- ARepetition
- BOnomatopoeia
- CSimile
- DRhetorical question
Show the answer
Answer: A Repetition
Each new part of the sentence starts with “fog” again. Hammering the word home makes the fog seem to fill every place Dickens names, up and down the river alike, so the reader feels smothered by it.
04 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“fog cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little ’prentice boy on deck.”
Charles Dickens, Bleak House
Which technique is used in this line?
- AOnomatopoeia
- BSimile
- CPersonification
- DRhetorical question
Show the answer
Answer: C Personification
Fog cannot really be cruel or pinch anyone, so giving it a human action and a human motive is personification. “Cruelly” suggests the fog means to hurt the poor shivering boy, which makes it feel like an enemy.
05 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill.”
Charles Dickens, Bleak House
Which technique is used in “waddling like an elephantine lizard”?
- AOxymoron
- BOnomatopoeia
- CSimile
- DRhetorical question
Show the answer
Answer: C Simile
The dinosaur is compared to a lizard using “like”, a simile. Picturing a Megalosaurus in the mud is also comic exaggeration: the streets are so wet and dirty that London feels like the world before people.
06 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Dickens places “best” right beside “worst”. What is this technique called?
- AOnomatopoeia
- BSimile
- CPersonification
- DJuxtaposition
Show the answer
Answer: D Juxtaposition
Placing opposites side by side is juxtaposition (in a balanced sentence like this it is also called antithesis). It suggests a time of extremes, when great hope and great suffering existed together.
07 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me”
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Which technique is used in this line?
- AMetaphor
- BOnomatopoeia
- CSimile
- DRhetorical question
Show the answer
Answer: A Metaphor
Jane speaks of herself as if she were a bird that might be netted, with no “like” or “as”: a metaphor. By denying it, she insists that she is free and that no one can capture or control her.
08 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“Nelly, I am Heathcliff!”
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Which technique is used in this line?
- AAlliteration
- BMetaphor
- COnomatopoeia
- DSimile
Show the answer
Answer: B Metaphor
Catherine says she IS Heathcliff, not that she is like him: a metaphor. It shows a bond so deep that she cannot separate herself from him.
09 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out”
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
The dismal rain matches the dark mood of the scene. What is this technique called?
- AOxymoron
- BPathetic fallacy
- CSimile
- DRhetorical question
Show the answer
Answer: B Pathetic fallacy
When weather reflects the mood of a scene, it is pathetic fallacy: the rain falls “dismally” as Frankenstein works alone, late at night, just before his creature wakes. “Pattered” copies the sound of the rain, which is onomatopoeia.
10 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes.”
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
Which technique is used in “withered like the dress”?
- AOxymoron
- BOnomatopoeia
- CSimile
- DRhetorical question
Show the answer
Answer: C Simile
The bride is compared to her dress and flowers using “like”, a simile. “Withered” is used of dead plants, so it suggests she has dried up and faded over the years, just as her wedding things have.
11 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“the children of the night. What music they make!”
Bram Stoker, Dracula
The Count calls the howling wolves “the children of the night”. What technique is this?
- AAlliteration
- BMetaphor
- COnomatopoeia
- DSimile
Show the answer
Answer: B Metaphor
The wolves are called children and their howling music, with no “like” or “as”: metaphors. Hearing beauty in a sound that terrifies the visitor hints that the Count belongs to the dark, frightening world of the night.
12 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“The sun, on account of the mist, had a curious sentient, personal look, demanding the masculine pronoun for its adequate expression.”
Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Which technique is used in this line?
- AOnomatopoeia
- BSimile
- CPersonification
- DRhetorical question
Show the answer
Answer: C Personification
Hardy gives the sun a feeling, personal look and says it should be called “he”, as if it were a man. Treating something that is not human as a person is personification.
13 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“But that would be a cruel kindness, and I dare not do it.”
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Which technique is “a cruel kindness”?
- AOxymoron
- BOnomatopoeia
- CSimile
- DRhetorical question
Show the answer
Answer: A Oxymoron
An oxymoron puts two opposite words together. Kindness is not usually cruel, so the pairing shows an act that seems kind but would really cause pain.
14 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“Had I known what a fearfully bitter sweet this was to be, how I would have avoided you”
Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd
Which technique is “bitter sweet”?
- AOxymoron
- BOnomatopoeia
- CSimile
- DPersonification
Show the answer
Answer: A Oxymoron
Bitter and sweet are opposite tastes, so putting them together is an oxymoron. It describes an experience that brings joy and hurt at the same time.
15 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“In the great old-fashioned fireplace behind the high iron dogs a log-fire crackled and snapped.”
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
Which technique is used in “crackled and snapped”?
- AOxymoron
- BOnomatopoeia
- CSimile
- DRhetorical question
Show the answer
Answer: B Onomatopoeia
Crackled and snapped sound like the noises a burning log makes, so they are onomatopoeia. They help the reader hear the fire in the dark old hall.
16 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“a hiss, a crash, a bell, and a shriek”
Charles Dickens, Hard Times
A train is arriving. Which technique do these words mostly use?
- AOxymoron
- BMetaphor
- COnomatopoeia
- DSimile
Show the answer
Answer: C Onomatopoeia
“Hiss”, “crash” and “shriek” imitate the noises they name: onomatopoeia. Listed quickly one after another, they recreate the noisy, rushed arrival of the train.
17 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“round it sat the young ladies, flashing scissors over silver-spangled stuff for private theatricals.”
Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room
Which technique is used in “flashing scissors over silver-spangled stuff”?
- AOxymoron
- BSimile
- CRhetorical question
- DSibilance
Show the answer
Answer: D Sibilance
The repeated soft “s” sounds in scissors, silver, spangled and stuff are sibilance. The hushed, whispering sounds suit the quiet snip of scissors through shiny cloth.
18 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further outdoor exercise was now out of the question.”
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
This bleak weather opens the novel, while young Jane lives unhappily with her aunt’s family. What technique is this?
- AOxymoron
- BPathetic fallacy
- COnomatopoeia
- DSimile
Show the answer
Answer: B Pathetic fallacy
Gloomy, cold, soaking weather sets a mood of misery that matches Jane’s unhappy life with the Reeds: pathetic fallacy. “Winter wind” repeats the w sound at the start of both words, which is alliteration.
19 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“They waited; a clock ticked; Bond Street hummed, dulled, distant”
Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street
Which two words alliterate?
- ABond Street
- BThey waited
- Cdulled, distant
- Dclock ticked
Show the answer
Answer: C dulled, distant
“Dulled” and “distant” start with the same d sound, which is alliteration. “Hummed” imitates the low noise of the busy street, which is onomatopoeia. Together they make the street seem far off from the quiet shop.
20 / Language techniquesA line from a book
“perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.”
H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds
Humans are being watched by Martians. Which technique is used here?
- AOxymoron
- BOnomatopoeia
- CSimile
- DRhetorical question
Show the answer
Answer: C Simile
The Martians’ watching is compared to a scientist with a microscope using “as”, a simile. It shrinks humans to tiny creatures in a drop of water: small, short-lived and at the mercy of far greater minds.
21 / Language techniquesOur own example
The sky wept over the funeral.
The sky is given a human action. What is that technique called?
- AOxymoron
- BOnomatopoeia
- CSimile
- DPersonification
Show the answer
Answer: D Personification
Weeping is something people do, so a weeping sky is personification. Because the rain also matches the sad mood of a funeral, this line is pathetic fallacy as well.
22 / Language techniquesOur own example
Her smile was a ray of sunshine.
Which technique is used here?
- AOxymoron
- BMetaphor
- COnomatopoeia
- DSimile
Show the answer
Answer: B Metaphor
The smile is said to BE a ray of sunshine, with no “like” or “as”, so it is a metaphor. It suggests her smile brings warmth and brightness to others.
23 / Language techniquesOur own example
A deafening silence filled the hall.
Which technique is “deafening silence”?
- AOxymoron
- BAlliteration
- COnomatopoeia
- DSimile
Show the answer
Answer: A Oxymoron
Silence makes no sound, so it cannot really deafen anyone. Two opposite ideas placed together make an oxymoron, here suggesting a silence so tense that it feels overwhelming.
24 / Language techniquesOur own example
Outside the palace gates, children begged for bread.
The writer places a palace beside begging children. What technique is this?
- AOnomatopoeia
- BSimile
- CRhetorical question
- DJuxtaposition
Show the answer
Answer: D Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition places two contrasting things side by side so the difference stands out. Wealth and hunger together make the unfairness hard to ignore.
25 / Language techniques
What is a simile?
- ARepeating a sound at the start of words
- BA word that sounds like its noise
- CA comparison using “like” or “as”
- DGiving human qualities to a thing
Show the answer
Answer: C A comparison using “like” or “as”
A simile compares one thing to another using “like” or “as”. “The classroom was a zoo” is a metaphor, because it says the room IS a zoo, and “roared” gives the room a creature’s action.
26 / Language techniques
What is personification?
- APlacing two opposites side by side
- BGiving human qualities to something not human
- CComparing two things using “like”
- DExaggerating for effect
Show the answer
Answer: B Giving human qualities to something not human
Personification gives a thing human actions or feelings. A house cannot groan like a person in pain, so the groaning house is personified. “As cold as ice” is a simile.
27 / Language techniques
What is pathetic fallacy?
- AWeather or setting that reflects a mood
- BA comparison that does not work
- CA character who pities themselves
- DA weak argument in a speech
Show the answer
Answer: A Weather or setting that reflects a mood
Pathetic fallacy is when the weather or surroundings mirror a character’s feelings or the mood of a scene, such as a storm during an argument. “Pathetic” here comes from an old word for feeling, not from “pitiful”.
28 / Language techniques
What is a semantic field?
- AA group of words linked by one topic
- BA word with two meanings
- CThe setting where a story happens
- DA long description of a place
Show the answer
Answer: A A group of words linked by one topic
A semantic field is a set of words that all relate to the same area of meaning, such as death or war. Spotting one helps you show how a writer builds an atmosphere across a whole passage.
29 / Language techniques
Which of these is onomatopoeia?
- AThe bacon sizzled in the pan.
- BThe bacon smelled delicious.
- CThe bacon was as thin as paper.
- DThe bacon was crisp and golden.
Show the answer
Answer: A The bacon sizzled in the pan.
“Sizzled” imitates the sound of frying, which is onomatopoeia. “A million times” is a deliberate exaggeration that no one takes literally, which is hyperbole.
30 / Language techniques
Which of these uses alliteration?
- ATall, wide and heavy
- BBright, warm and cheerful
- CHuge, loud and colourful
- DBig, bold and beautiful
Show the answer
Answer: D Big, bold and beautiful
Alliteration repeats the same sound at the start of nearby words. Big, bold and beautiful all begin with b, which makes the phrase punchy and memorable.
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