Easy Category. You can use the sample questions below for an English Language and Literature Quiz Bee. Answers are also provided. Depending on the level of the quiz bee participants, you can modify the questions, hence the other types such as multiple choice or alternative response.
- In linguistics, the International Phonetic Alphabet is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. Using the IPA, how many standard phonetic symbols comprise the word ‘ENGLISH’? (Six)
- In the production of speech sounds, what articulator plays a decisive role in forming the constrictions for many consonants and in distinguishing vowels, and which is considered as the most mobile and flexible structure in the vocal tract? (Tongue)
- The word BOY has one, BOYS has two, and BOYISHNESS has three. What do we call the basic semantic unit of language? (Morpheme)
- What literary criticism approach has been considered as a subset of historical criticism, the focus being narrowed to the author’s life and thought, relating these to his or her literature? (Biographical Criticism)
- Listen as I read a stanza: In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeoning of chance, My head is bloody, but unbowed. In the 2012 game Mass Effect 3, this second stanza of the poem is cited by one of the main characters: Ashley Williams, lieutenant-commander of the Alliance. From what poem the stanza was taken? (Henley’s Invictus)
- Which idiom best supplies the given statement (make choices): Last night, we (blank) my grandmother’s old diary while clearing out the attic? (came across)
- Many areas of the world are populated by people who speak diverse languages. In such areas where groups desire social or commercial communication, one language is used by common agreement. Such language is called a lingua franca. (The question) If French, at one time, was the lingua franca of diplomacy, and Latin was a lingua franca of the Roman Empire and of Western Christendom for a millennium, what has been called as the lingua franca of the whole world? (English)
- “We will win the championships,” coach Kenn Marquez confidently declared yesterday. In campus journalism, the sample news story lead can be classified as__. (Quotation Lead)
- In poetry, what do we call a single, related chunk of lines or a unit or group of lines which forms one particular faction in poetry? (Stanza)
- In morphology, some classes of words are called “closed” because they contain relatively small number of items to which no new words or bound morphemes can normally be added. (the question) Which of the following belongs to closed word classes (fear, across, boy, live)? (Across)
- What particular literary genre presents a historical account of facts or events in the order of time and usually continuous and detailed but without analysis or interpretation? (Chronicle)
- What do we call the modern verse or poetry without any formal structure; that is without systematic regularity in rhythm and in rhyme? (Free Verse)
- Nouns are used in different ways: “The dog barks. The man bit the dog.” In the first case, dog is the actor, or the one that initiates the action of the verb. In the second, dog is acted upon. In “The dog barks,” the dog is the subject of the verb. In the other sentence, dog is_. (Direct Object)
- In Greek mythology, he is the youth loved and accidentally killed by Apollo who memorializes him with a flower growing from the youth’s blood. (Hyacinthus)
- It names a quality, a characteristic or an idea (e.g. popularity, coldness, efficiency). (Abstract Noun)
- In the sentence, “He was tired; therefore, he stayed home,” the word THEREFORE modifies the clause of which is a part and connects the clause to the previous part of the sentence. THEREFORE is not to be used as a conjunction, hence the semicolon. In word classes, adverbs like therefore, accordingly, besides, etc. are called? (Conjunctive Adverbs)
- This book of the Bible deals with Hebrew’s escape from Egypt and their journey back to Palestine under the able leadership of Moses. (Exodus)
- Historically, men have controlled literary production and criticism, so the female voice has been grossly underrepresented in both. What emerging literary criticism approach focuses on literature by female authors, previously ignored genres to which female authors were once limited and the representation of females in literature? (Feminist Criticism)
- For example, TOILET is usually classified as a noun. But in UK, primary school teachers often speak of toileting children (I had to TOILET John twice today.). In describing such a sentence, you should be guided by the internal grammar of the sentence (syntax) rather than the dictionary. Here TOILET is a transitive verb. If this usage becomes standard, lexicographers will record it. (the question) What kind of word formation takes place? (Conversion)
- (Complete this statement) The examination ___two hours, didn’t it? (lasted)
- What do we call an expression that has become hackneyed and trite; an expression that has lost its precise meaning by constant reiteration, in other words, becomes stereotyped? (Cliché)
- Complete the statement: Arlington National Cemetery was built (blank) and other war heroes during the American Civil War (according to honor, in order to honor soldiers, for honor of soldiers, to soldiers that we honored). (in order to honor soldiers)