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🇬🇧 Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) · flashcards
Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) English Literature Flashcards
58 question-and-answer cards covering English Literature as it is examined in Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE). 24 of them are printed below, taken from across the deck — no signup, no paywall on the preview.
24 sample cards from the English Literature deck
Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.
What is 'naturalism' in modern drama?
A style aiming to depict everyday reality faithfully, with believable dialogue, ordinary settings and characters shaped by their environment and heredity.
What is the difference between a 'simile' and a 'metaphor'?
A simile compares two things using 'like' or 'as'; a metaphor states that one thing is another directly, without 'like' or 'as'.
Define 'personification'.
A figure of speech that gives human qualities, feelings or actions to non-human things or abstract ideas.
What is an 'extended metaphor'?
A metaphor developed and sustained over several lines, an entire stanza or a whole poem.
What is 'imagery' in poetry?
Descriptive language that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell) to create vivid mental pictures.
What is 'symbolism' as opposed to a single metaphor?
Symbolism uses a concrete image to represent a larger or recurring abstract idea throughout a text, whereas a metaphor is a localised comparison.
Define 'alliteration' and 'sibilance'.
Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds in nearby words; sibilance is the specific repetition of 's' or soft 'sh' sounds.
What is the difference between 'assonance' and 'consonance'?
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within words; consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds, often at the ends of words.
What is 'onomatopoeia'?
A word whose sound imitates the noise it describes, such as 'buzz', 'crash' or 'hiss'.
Define 'rhythm' and 'metre' in poetry.
Rhythm is the pattern of stressed and unstressed beats in a line; metre is the regular, measured form of that rhythm (e.g. iambic pentameter).
What is 'iambic pentameter'?
A line of five iambs (ten syllables), each iamb being an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, giving a da-DUM da-DUM rhythm.
What is 'enjambment' and how does it differ from an 'end-stopped' line?
Enjambment is when a sentence or phrase runs over the line break without pause; an end-stopped line finishes with a grammatical pause or punctuation.
What is the difference between a 'stanza' and a 'verse'?
A stanza is a grouped set of lines in a poem (its 'paragraph'); 'verse' loosely means poetry in general or a single metrical line.
What is a 'sonnet' and how many lines does it have?
A 14-line poem, usually in iambic pentameter, with a set rhyme scheme; the Shakespearean form is three quatrains and a closing rhyming couplet.
What is 'free verse'?
Poetry without a regular metre or rhyme scheme, relying on natural speech rhythms and line breaks for effect.
What is a 'rhyme scheme' and how is it notated?
The pattern of end rhymes in a poem, labelled with letters where each new rhyme sound gets a new letter, e.g. ABAB CDCD.
What is the difference between 'mood' and 'tone' in a text?
Tone is the writer's or speaker's attitude towards the subject; mood is the emotional atmosphere the text creates in the reader.
What is a 'volta' in a poem?
A turn or shift in thought, argument or emotion, often signalled by words like 'but' or 'yet', frequently between octave and sestet in a sonnet.
When 'forming a personal response' to a text, what is expected of you?
To give your own informed interpretation, explaining how the text affects you and why, supported by reasons and evidence from the text.
What does it mean to 'support a view with textual evidence'?
To back up an interpretation by quoting or closely referencing specific words, lines or details from the text.
What does the analytical technique 'embedding a quotation' involve?
Integrating a short quotation smoothly within your own sentence rather than dropping it in separately, so it reads fluently and stays focused.
Outline the P-E-E (or PEEL) structure for a literature essay paragraph.
Point: state your idea; Evidence: give a quotation or reference; Explanation: analyse how the evidence proves the point (Link: connect back to the question or next point).
What should a literature essay introduction do?
Address the question directly, set out your main argument or thesis, and briefly signal the points you will develop.
Why should you analyse a writer's methods rather than just retell the plot?
Because higher marks reward explaining how and why the writer uses specific language, structure and form to create meaning and effect, not summarising events.
What this deck covers
The English Literature deck follows the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) English Literature syllabus — 4 chapters and 14 topics — so questions land on material that is genuinely examinable rather than trivia around it. That works out to roughly 14.5 cards per chapter.
Answers are written to be recallable, not just readable — averaging about 130 characters, which is long enough to carry the reasoning and short enough to say out loud.
A deck like this earns its keep on the second and third pass. Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then use the cards to find the specific facts that have not stuck.
English Literature flashcards FAQ
How many English Literature flashcards are in this Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) deck?
58 cards. This page previews 24 of them, sampled evenly across the deck so you can judge the difficulty before installing anything.
Are these Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) flashcards free?
Yes. The preview here is free to read with no signup, and the full 58-card deck is free inside the Examius app.
What do the English Literature cards cover?
They follow the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) English Literature syllabus — 4 chapters and 14 topics — so the questions track what is actually examinable.
How should I use these flashcards?
Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then drill the deck. Examius schedules each card with spaced repetition, so cards you keep missing come back sooner and ones you know drift further apart.