Free ICAS English Exam Flashcards

A literal answer is directly stated. An inference combines textual clues with reasonable background knowledge without adding claims the passage cannot support.

Ask what most details collectively explain or support. Choose a statement broad enough to cover the paragraph but narrow enough to exclude unrelated ideas.

It preserves the central claim and essential supporting points in fewer words while omitting examples, repetition, minor detail, and personal judgement.

Markers such as first, meanwhile, after, and finally locate events in time. Also check causal dependencies when events are described out of chronological order.

The cause explains why something happened; the effect is the resulting event or condition. Test the relationship by inserting because or therefore.

A fact can be checked against evidence. An opinion expresses a judgement, preference, or interpretation, even when the writer presents it confidently.

Use the assumed knowledge, vocabulary, tone, examples, instructions, design, and direct address to identify the readers the text expects and seeks to influence.

Text type describes the form, such as review or procedure. Purpose describes what the writer aims to achieve, such as evaluate, instruct, entertain, or persuade.

Read labels, scale, key, and title, then connect them to the prose. The correct interpretation must fit both sources rather than either in isolation.

It extends established motives, patterns, conditions, or causal links. A merely possible outcome is weaker than one supported by several clues.

Locate relevant evidence and check whether it proves the whole claim. Beware of statements that exaggerate scope, certainty, frequency, or causation.

A plot event is what happens. A theme is a broader idea developed through recurring choices, conflicts, consequences, images, or changes across the text.

It is a gap that weakens the conclusion, such as insufficient evidence, a narrow sample, an unstated assumption, ignored alternatives, or reasoning beyond the data.

A simile makes an explicit comparison, commonly using like or as. A metaphor presents one thing as another to transfer qualities and associations.

Giving human actions or feelings to something nonhuman can animate a setting, clarify an idea, shape mood, or reveal the narrator's attitude.

Specific sensory details help readers imagine an experience and can reinforce mood, setting, character perspective, or an important contrast.

Repeated initial consonant sounds can create rhythm, emphasis, memorability, or a sound quality that supports the subject and tone.

Onomatopoeia uses a word whose sound imitates or evokes the noise, such as hiss. Ordinary description merely names or explains the sound.

It can emphasise an idea, build rhythm, link sections, intensify emotion, or make a phrase memorable. Its effect depends on what repeats and where.

It invites readers to supply an implied answer, frames an issue, creates emphasis, or pressures the audience toward the writer's viewpoint.

Examine evaluative words, imagery, sentence rhythm, punctuation, formality, and what the writer praises, criticises, exaggerates, or withholds.

Tone is the writer's or speaker's attitude toward the subject or audience. Mood is the feeling the text tends to create in the reader.

The reader gains and loses access to particular knowledge, feelings, biases, and relationships. Reinterpret claims according to the new speaker or focal character.

Identify the gap between appearance and reality, words and intended meaning, or expectation and outcome, then explain why that contrast matters.

Headings, spacing, font, panels, image placement, and sequence guide attention, signal relationships, establish hierarchy, and influence how readers navigate the text.

A quotation can supply evidence, authority, contrast, an alternative voice, or material the writer later challenges. Judge its function in context.

Find the complete subject, determine whether its head noun is singular or plural, and match the verb. Ignore interrupting phrases that contain distracting nouns.

Its antecedent is identifiable, agrees in number and person, and cannot reasonably point to a competing noun in the sentence or nearby context.

Shift tense only when the time frame changes. An unexplained shift inside the same sequence makes the relationship between events unclear or incorrect.

It is presented as a sentence but lacks a complete independent clause, often because it has no finite verb or begins with a subordinating word without a main clause.

Use a full stop, a semicolon, or a comma plus a coordinating conjunction. A comma alone usually creates a comma splice.

It should accurately signal addition, contrast, cause, result, time, condition, or concession. Grammar alone is insufficient if the logical relationship is wrong.

Use commas when the clause adds nonessential information. Do not use them when the clause is needed to identify which person or thing is meant.

It marks omitted letters in contractions and possession. It does not normally form an ordinary plural, and possessive its has no apostrophe.

Place it after a complete clause to introduce an explanation, example, quotation, or list that develops what came before.

It joins closely related independent clauses without a coordinating conjunction. Both sides must be capable of standing as complete sentences.

Brackets usually make inserted information feel secondary. Dashes create a stronger break or emphasis. Either must leave the surrounding sentence grammatically complete.

A modifier appears to describe the nearest plausible word. Place it beside its intended target so the sentence does not imply an impossible or unintended relationship.

Look for definitions, examples, contrasts, restatements, causes, and consequences nearby. Test the inferred meaning by substituting it into the sentence.

Denotation is a word's direct meaning. Connotation is the positive, negative, or cultural association that affects tone and makes one near-synonym more suitable.

Near-synonyms can differ in intensity, formality, connotation, grammar, or usual word partners. Replace the original and confirm both meaning and tone remain intact.

Identify the target word's exact sense, then choose its opposite for that sense. A word can be unrelated or merely different without being an antonym.

A prefix can alter meaning by signalling ideas such as negation, repetition, position, number, or degree. Confirm the whole word in context.

It often signals grammatical role or meaning, such as noun, adjective, verb, person, process, or quality. Spelling may change when suffixes attach.

Related words share a base but may change word class or nuance. Use the familiar base, affixes, and sentence grammar to test the unfamiliar form.

Ignore sound and identify the required meaning and grammatical job. Substitute each spelling's definition into the sentence before choosing.

Treat the phrase as a conventional unit when a word-for-word reading fails. Use context to paraphrase its intended figurative meaning.

Paraphrase the sentence, use nearby clues and grammar, reject real meanings that do not fit, then reinsert the chosen sense to confirm coherence.

Jargon is specialised language used by a field or group. Its precise local meaning may differ from an everyday use of the same word.

Identify the relationship shared by most words—meaning, category, degree, or word family—then choose the word that does not follow that same relationship.