36 exam-style questions on Nature of literature and the literary text — topic AE1.1 of Readers, writers and texts in the IB English A: Literature syllabus — with answers and explanations. Samples below; the full set is free with an account.
State the literary term for the deliberate arrangement of a poem's lines into stanzas, meter and rhyme, as distinct from its subject matter.
Answer: Form
Form refers to the structural and organisational features of a text (line, stanza, meter), while content is the ideas or subject matter it conveys.
A novel is narrated by a character whose account the reader gradually learns to distrust. Identify this narrative technique.
Answer: Unreliable narrator
An unreliable narrator gives an account the reader has reason to question, forcing readers to interpret against the grain of what is told.
Identify the three broad literary forms into which literary works are traditionally grouped.
Answer: Prose, poetry and drama
The broad literary forms are prose, poetry and drama; the other lists name genres, modes or sub-forms within them. The IB guide splits prose into prose fiction and prose non-fiction, giving four forms.
Identify the term for the central idea or concern a text explores, such as mortality or the passage of time.
Answer: Theme
Theme is the underlying idea or concern a work explores; plot is the sequence of events and setting is the time and place.
Determine the term for the attitude a writer conveys toward their subject or audience through word choice and style.
Answer: Tone
Tone is the writer's attitude conveyed through language; mood is the emotional atmosphere the reader experiences.
Explain which term names the choice and use of words in a literary text, contributing to tone and meaning.
Answer: Diction
Diction is a writer's selection of words; the other terms describe rhythmic or line-level features of verse.
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