Important Reading Vocabulary for Praxis II ParaPro Test Prep Study Guide

The reading section of the ParaPro Assessment will test your knowledge of important literary terms. You will be expected to know the bolded words in the following paragraphs. Make sure you are familiar with every one of these terms before taking the test.

An antonym is a word that has an opposite meaning. For example, tall is an antonym of short. It may help to remember the meaning of this word if you consider that ant- is a prefix that means opposite, just as Antarctica means the opposite of the Arctic.

The author of a story is the person who wrote it.

A compound word is a word that is created by putting two words together, such as extraordinary, teacup, or butterfly.

The context of a word, or a context clue, is the area around the word or phrase that helps to determine its meaning. For example, the context clue that helps define frigid in the following sentence is that Jack needed to wear his heavy coat: Because it was so frigid, Jack needed to wear his heavy coat. (Frigid means very cold.)

A consonant is a letter of the alphabet that is not a vowel. The consonants are b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, z, and y in words like yes or beyond.

A dictionary is resource that provides the meaning, or definition, of words.

A fact is a statement that can be proven. For example, the sentence Barack Obama was an Illinois senator before he became U.S. President is a fact.

First-person point of view expresses the writer's personal feelings and experiences directly to the reader using these pronouns: I, me, mine; we, our, us. The first person creates a sense of intimacy between the reader and writer because it expresses a subjective point of view.

A homonym is a word that sounds like another word but has a different meaning. For example, two and to are homonyms.

An inference is a conclusion that can be made from given information.

The narrator in a story is the person who is telling the story. Many stories do not have a narrator. If the passage includes a speaker speaking in the first person (using words like I or me), then that speaker is the narrator.