As the hikers set out under clear skies, Maya noticed a thin line of dark clouds behind the mountain. She decided not to mention it.
Grade 7 Literary Devices worksheet
from Gradelings · Name: ______________________
How to explain it
- Foreshadowing hints at what will happen later. A flashback jumps back to an earlier time.
- A symbol is an object that stands for a bigger idea.
- Irony: verbal (saying the opposite of what you mean), situational (the opposite of what’s expected happens), dramatic (readers know what a character doesn’t).
Example: A fire station burns down. What kind of irony is this? You’d expect a fire station to be the safest place from fire. The opposite of what you expect happens. Answer: Situational irony
Question 1
Which literary device does this excerpt use?
- Hyperbole
- Flashback
- Onomatopoeia
- Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing
Hint: The dark clouds hint that trouble may come later. Hints about future events are foreshadowing.
Question 2
Put the parts of a plot in order, from beginning to end.
- Rising action: the conflict builds
- Climax: the turning point
- Falling action: events after the turning point
- Resolution: the conflict is settled
- Exposition: characters and setting are introduced
Exposition: characters and setting are introduced → Rising action: the conflict builds → Climax: the turning point → Falling action: events after the turning point → Resolution: the conflict is settled
Hint: Picture a mountain: the story introduces its people, climbs as the conflict builds, peaks at the turning point, then comes down to an ending.
Question 3
How does foreshadowing usually affect a reader?
- It proves that the narrator is lying.
- It explains events that already happened.
- It makes the story shorter.
- It builds suspense by hinting at what might happen.
It builds suspense by hinting at what might happen.
Hint: Hints about the future make readers wonder what's coming, and keep them reading.
Question 4
A scene interrupts the present action to show something that happened earlier. What is this called?
- Personification
- Foreshadowing
- Flashback
- Symbolism
Flashback
Hint: The story “flashes back” to the past.
Question 5
What is a simile?
- A word that imitates a sound
- An exaggeration for effect
- A scene from an earlier time
- A comparison that uses “like” or “as”
A comparison that uses “like” or “as”
Hint: “As busy as a bee” and “ran like the wind” are both similes.
Question 6
Which device gives human qualities to something that is not human?
- Alliteration
- Personification
- Hyperbole
- Simile
Personification
Hint: Look inside the word: personification makes a thing act like a person.
Question 7
When the audience knows something that a character does not, it is called…
- Verbal irony
- Situational irony
- Foreshadowing
- Dramatic irony
Dramatic irony
Hint: Think of a play (a drama) where the audience can see what the character can't.
Question 8
In a story about a girl who moves to a new country, she keeps a jar of soil from her grandmother's garden on her windowsill. What does the jar most likely symbolize?
- Her plan to start a business
- Her fear of plants
- Her plan to become a scientist
- Her connection to her family and the home she left
Her connection to her family and the home she left
Hint: Where did the soil come from? What would that place mean to someone far away?
Question 9
In a story, a dove appears whenever the characters make peace. What device is the dove an example of?
- Flashback
- Hyperbole
- Symbolism
- Onomatopoeia
Symbolism
Hint: The dove stands for a bigger idea: peace. An object that represents an idea is a symbol.
Answer key
- 1. Foreshadowing
- 2. Exposition: characters and setting are introduced → Rising action: the conflict builds → Climax: the turning point → Falling action: events after the turning point → Resolution: the conflict is settled
- 3. It builds suspense by hinting at what might happen.
- 4. Flashback
- 5. A comparison that uses “like” or “as”
- 6. Personification
- 7. Dramatic irony
- 8. Her connection to her family and the home she left
- 9. Symbolism
Want more than 9 questions?
In Gradelings the questions change every time and adjust to your child, with hints and kind feedback.