Exaggerating one's personal features for comic effect is

Step 1: Analyze the question The question asks for the literary term that describes exaggerating a person's features (physical or personality traits) for comic effect.

Step 2: Review the options

• A. Caricature: A portrayal in which a person's distinctive features or characteristics are exaggerated, often to comic or grotesque effect. It can be visual (a cartoon of a politician with an enormous nose) or written (a character whose vanity is blown out of proportion).
• B. Lampoon: A piece of writing that attacks or ridicules a person, usually harshly and in a spiteful way. Its aim is to mock, not just to exaggerate features for fun.
• C. Contrast: Placing two opposite or different things side by side to highlight their differences. It has nothing to do with exaggeration.
• D. Satire: The use of humour, irony, or ridicule to expose and criticize human folly, vice, or social and political issues. It is a broad genre or technique, and exaggeration is only one of its tools. The question is about exaggerating personal features, which is more specific.

Step 3: Match the definition "Exaggerating personal features for comic effect" matches the definition of caricature. Lampoon and satire involve criticism or ridicule, but caricature is specifically about exaggerating distinctive features.

Step 4: Answer The correct option is A. caricature.

Exam tip: Think of caricature = character + exaggeration. Cartoonists draw caricatures of public figures by blowing up their most noticeable features. When you see "exaggerating features" in a question, think caricature. If you see "attacking or ridiculing someone," think lampoon. If you see "criticizing society's vices through humour," think satire.