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Quiz about Figure out the Figure
Quiz about Figure out the Figure

Figure out the Figure. Trivia Quiz


Discover the rhetor in you. Here you find some of the rhetorical figures, or figures of speech, we use everyday, without even noticing.

A multiple-choice quiz by zordy. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
zordy
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
304,573
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Tough
Avg Score
6 / 10
Plays
2189
Awards
Top 35% Quiz
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. Gasp! Gulp! Splash! All these words are examples of which figure?

Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Even if you are a cowboy you probably use rhetorical figures, like "I've got fifty head", to mean fifty cows. What is this figure called, in which the part stands for the whole? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. "My mother-in-law: I hate her". This very common sentence is an example of hyperbaton, in which the common order of words is changed to get more emphasis or effect. But to be even more precise, what kind of hyperbaton is this?

Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. You come home from work, you're a bit hungry and you groan "I'm starving!". What kind of figure you're using?

Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. There's a figure called litotes, that can be considered a form of understatement. Can you identify the example of litotes among the following statements? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Mae West once said: "It's not the men in my life, it's the life in my men." This is a brilliant example of another "scheme", the scheme being a figure of speech that changes the normal arrangement of words in a sentence.

But what kind of scheme has been used here?

Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. Let's get back to metaphor, or to the kind called metonymy. Please, identify the metonymy here: Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. "O brawling love! O loving hate! O heavy lightness! serious vanity!" From "Romeo and Juliet" we get an example of another figure of speech where contradictory terms appear side by side. What is it called?

Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. "I am angry; no, I'm furious!" it is an example of a figure of interruption. Can you identify which one? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. And now the last trope, called antaclasis (Greek, from reflection). It consists in repeating a single word with a different meaning. It is widely used in puns and advertising slogans. So you can try to complete this antaclasis yourself: She is nice from far, but...


Answer: (Three Words)

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Gasp! Gulp! Splash! All these words are examples of which figure?

Answer: Onomatopoiea

The examples given are frequent in comics, but of course there are other more noble examples of onomatopoiea.
Take Tennyson:
"the moan of doves in immemorial elms,

And murmuring of innumerable bees."

Can you hear the drone in the sound of these verses? No? Well...
2. Even if you are a cowboy you probably use rhetorical figures, like "I've got fifty head", to mean fifty cows. What is this figure called, in which the part stands for the whole?

Answer: Synecdoche

An example from Shakespeare: "Take thy face hence" (Macbeth). Synecdoche is from the Greek "shared understanding", and is a kind of metaphor.

The rhetorical figures of this kind, where the typical meaning of a word changes, are called tropes.
3. "My mother-in-law: I hate her". This very common sentence is an example of hyperbaton, in which the common order of words is changed to get more emphasis or effect. But to be even more precise, what kind of hyperbaton is this?

Answer: Anastrophe

In hysteron proteron (meaning "latter before") the first word refers to something that happens later than the second word.

Tmesis is when a word is separated into two parts, with other words occurring between them: take the Soft Machine song called "Out-Bloody-Rageous".

You know (of course) what a parenthesis is.
4. You come home from work, you're a bit hungry and you groan "I'm starving!". What kind of figure you're using?

Answer: Hyperbole

In hyperbole, exaggeration is used to achieve an effect. It comes from a Greek word meaning "excess".
5. There's a figure called litotes, that can be considered a form of understatement. Can you identify the example of litotes among the following statements?

Answer: The wine is not bad

In litotes, an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite.

The Shelby sentence is an example of alliteration - repeated use of the sme sound to start a group of words. The line from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" is an example of antithesis, and the sentence alluding to grandad's death is euphemism.
6. Mae West once said: "It's not the men in my life, it's the life in my men." This is a brilliant example of another "scheme", the scheme being a figure of speech that changes the normal arrangement of words in a sentence. But what kind of scheme has been used here?

Answer: Chiasmus

Chiasmus is the arrangement of words in the form of the Greek letter Chi, written like a big X. As you see, the terms "life" and "men" form a cross somehow.
Maybe, with Mae West involved, you thought it was llimax, that is the arrangement of words in order of increasing importance. Isocolon is a sentence like "I came, I saw, I conquered". Ellipsis is an omission of words.
7. Let's get back to metaphor, or to the kind called metonymy. Please, identify the metonymy here:

Answer: Loyal to the crown

All the sentences use words metaphorically somehow, but in metonymy a word is substituted with another, closely associated. Here, "crown" means "royalty".
8. "O brawling love! O loving hate! O heavy lightness! serious vanity!" From "Romeo and Juliet" we get an example of another figure of speech where contradictory terms appear side by side. What is it called?

Answer: Oxymoron

Some think that "happy marriage" is a good example of oxymoron.
9. "I am angry; no, I'm furious!" it is an example of a figure of interruption. Can you identify which one?

Answer: Epanorthosis

Anacoluthon: a grammatical interruption or lack of implied sequence within a sentence. "That he which hath no stomach to this fight, Let him depart" (Shakespeare, "King Henri V")

Aposiopesis: Breaking off suddenly in the middle of speaking. "Well, I lay if I get ahold of you I'll" (Mark Twain, "Tom Sawyer")

Appositio: addition of an explanatory or descriptive element.
10. And now the last trope, called antaclasis (Greek, from reflection). It consists in repeating a single word with a different meaning. It is widely used in puns and advertising slogans. So you can try to complete this antaclasis yourself: She is nice from far, but...

Answer: far from nice

See? You've been using antaclasis, hyperbaton, oxymoron etc. all your life without even noticing!
Source: Author zordy

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