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Literary Devices Practice Tests

These Grade 10 English practice tests build skill with figurative language, sound devices, imagery, symbolism, irony, wordplay, mood, tone, and evidence-based literary analysis.

Skills covered

  • Identifying simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, idiom, oxymoron, and paradox
  • Recognizing alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, rhyme, rhythm, repetition, and anaphora
  • Analyzing imagery, symbolism, allusion, mood, tone, and figurative comparisons
  • Distinguishing dramatic, situational, and verbal irony, understatement, euphemism, and puns
  • Explaining how literary devices shape meaning, characterization, atmosphere, emphasis, and reader response

How to use these practice tests

First name the device from the exact language pattern. Then explain what the device suggests in context and how it affects tone, mood, imagery, emphasis, or theme.

For more Grade 10 English practice, return to the Grade 10 English category.

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1. Test

Grade 10 Literary Devices Practice Tests

Practice Grade 10 English questions about figurative language, sound devices, imagery, symbolism, irony, wordplay, mood, tone, and literary analysis.

Choose the best answer. Identify the language pattern, consider its context, and select the explanation that best describes its meaning or effect.

10 Questions
0/10 Questions0 %
Correct 0
Incorrect 0
Unanswered 10
1. QuestionMultiple choice

Which sentence contains a simile?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: A

The correct answer is The moon hung like a silver lantern..

  1. Identify the language pattern: Look at the comparison, sound, image, contradiction, or repeated structure in the sentence or passage.
  2. Name the literary device: A simile compares two unlike things using a word such as like or as.
  3. Check the effect: The correct answer is The moon hung like a silver lantern..

A simile compares two unlike things using a word such as like or as.

2. QuestionMultiple choice

Which sentence contains a metaphor?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: B

The correct answer is The classroom was a beehive of ideas..

  1. Identify the language pattern: Look at the comparison, sound, image, contradiction, or repeated structure in the sentence or passage.
  2. Name the literary device: A metaphor makes a direct comparison without using like or as.
  3. Check the effect: The correct answer is The classroom was a beehive of ideas..

A metaphor makes a direct comparison without using like or as.

3. QuestionMultiple choice

Which sentence uses personification?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: C

The correct answer is The wind whispered through the trees..

  1. Identify the language pattern: Look at the comparison, sound, image, contradiction, or repeated structure in the sentence or passage.
  2. Name the literary device: Personification gives the human action of whispering to the wind.
  3. Check the effect: The correct answer is The wind whispered through the trees..

Personification gives the human action of whispering to the wind.

4. QuestionMultiple choice

Which sentence contains hyperbole?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: D

The correct answer is I have told you a million times to save your work..

  1. Identify the language pattern: Look at the comparison, sound, image, contradiction, or repeated structure in the sentence or passage.
  2. Name the literary device: Hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis, not a literal count.
  3. Check the effect: The correct answer is I have told you a million times to save your work..

Hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis, not a literal count.

5. QuestionMultiple choice

What is the main effect of a simile in a description?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: A

The correct answer is It creates a clear comparison that helps readers imagine an idea..

  1. Identify the language pattern: Look at the comparison, sound, image, contradiction, or repeated structure in the sentence or passage.
  2. Name the literary device: A simile connects an unfamiliar idea to a familiar image.
  3. Check the effect: The correct answer is It creates a clear comparison that helps readers imagine an idea..

A simile connects an unfamiliar idea to a familiar image.

6. QuestionMultiple choice

What is the main difference between a metaphor and a simile?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: B

The correct answer is A metaphor compares directly, while a simile signals comparison with like or as..

  1. Identify the language pattern: Look at the comparison, sound, image, contradiction, or repeated structure in the sentence or passage.
  2. Name the literary device: Both create comparisons, but similes use explicit comparison words and metaphors state the comparison directly.
  3. Check the effect: The correct answer is A metaphor compares directly, while a simile signals comparison with like or as..

Both create comparisons, but similes use explicit comparison words and metaphors state the comparison directly.

7. QuestionMultiple choice

Which phrase is an example of an idiom?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: C

The correct answer is Break the ice..

  1. Identify the language pattern: Look at the comparison, sound, image, contradiction, or repeated structure in the sentence or passage.
  2. Name the literary device: An idiom has a meaning that differs from the literal meanings of its individual words.
  3. Check the effect: The correct answer is Break the ice..

An idiom has a meaning that differs from the literal meanings of its individual words.

8. QuestionMultiple choice

What does the idiom "spill the beans" usually mean?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: D

The correct answer is Reveal a secret..

  1. Identify the language pattern: Look at the comparison, sound, image, contradiction, or repeated structure in the sentence or passage.
  2. Name the literary device: The phrase is not literal; it means to reveal information that was meant to remain secret.
  3. Check the effect: The correct answer is Reveal a secret..

The phrase is not literal; it means to reveal information that was meant to remain secret.

9. QuestionMultiple choice

Which line uses an oxymoron?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: A

The correct answer is The speaker described the silence as deafening..

  1. Identify the language pattern: Look at the comparison, sound, image, contradiction, or repeated structure in the sentence or passage.
  2. Name the literary device: An oxymoron combines apparently contradictory terms to create a meaningful effect.
  3. Check the effect: The correct answer is The speaker described the silence as deafening..

An oxymoron combines apparently contradictory terms to create a meaningful effect.

10. QuestionMultiple choice

Which line contains a paradox?

Please select an answer first.

Correct answer: B

The correct answer is The more the character learned, the more the character understood how much remained unknown..

  1. Identify the language pattern: Look at the comparison, sound, image, contradiction, or repeated structure in the sentence or passage.
  2. Name the literary device: A paradox appears contradictory at first but expresses a logical insight about knowledge.
  3. Check the effect: The correct answer is The more the character learned, the more the character understood how much remained unknown..

A paradox appears contradictory at first but expresses a logical insight about knowledge.

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