1
According to skeptics of Shakespeare’s authorship, all of the following are considered to be the “true” authors of some of Shakespeare’s plays EXCEPT:
Choose one answer.
a. Thomas More.
b. Francis Bacon.
c. Earl of Oxford.
d. John Shakespeare.
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Question 2
Both Shakespeare and Christopher Marlow are thought to have been born in what year?
Choose one answer.
a. 1564
b. 1580
c. 1577
d. 1550
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Question 3
In drama, a “soliloquy” refers to which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. A dialogue between two characters
b. A character’s final words before dying
c. A speech delivered by a character intended to be spoken to only the audience
d. A rhyming line
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Question 4
In drama, what is a “climax”?
Choose one answer.
a. The conclusion of a play
b. The end of the first scene of a play
c. The first death on stage in a play
d. The turning point of the action in the play
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Question 5
In verse, “meter” refers to which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. The length of a written line
b. The measured pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables
c. The height of the stage
d. The number of words in a line
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Question 6
Shakespeare was the author of which of the following plays?
Choose one answer.
a. “Doctor Faustus”
b. “The Faerie Queen”
c. “Titus Andronicus”
d. “The Jew of Malta”
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Question 7
What concept best distinguishes the difference between the time of the Middles Ages and the Renaissance?
Choose one answer.
a. Humanism
b. The rise of Queen Elizabeth
c. The popularity of theater
d. The life of Shakespeare
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Question 8
What does the term “renaissance” mean?
Choose one answer.
a. Death
b. Theater
c. Drama
d. Rebirth
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Question 9
What is the name of Shakespeare’s son?
Choose one answer.
a. William
b. John
c. Hamlet
d. Hamnet
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Question 10
What religion had the most political and social power in Shakespeare’s time?
Choose one answer.
a. Catholicism
b. Buddhism
c. Protestantism
d. Mormonism
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Question 11
What was the name of the theater group that Shakespeare worked with for most of his career?
Choose one answer.
a. The Lord Chamberlin’s Men
b. Elizabeth’s Men
c. The Globe’s Men
d. Will’s Men
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Question 12
Which group was at the bottom of England’s social hierarchy during Shakespeare’s early years?
Choose one answer.
a. Nobility
b. Peasants
c. Yeomen
d. The gentry
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Question 13
Which of the following best characterizes an Elizabethan masque?
Choose one answer.
a. A horror play, featuring supernatural forces
b. A sophisticated comedy with a surprising ending
c. A drama, featuring players representing mythic or allegorical figures
d. A performance of a classical play in contemporary language
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Question 14
Which of the following playwrights is thought to have had the greatest influence on Shakespeare?
Choose one answer.
a. Ben Johnson
b. Christopher Marlow
c. Philip Sidney
d. Thomas Kyd
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Question 15
Who is the author of Utopia?
Choose one answer.
a. Thomas More
b. William Shakespeare
c. Christopher Marlowe
d. Philip Sydney
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Question 16
Who is the author of “The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus”?
Choose one answer.
a. Christopher Marlow
b. William Shakespeare
c. Philip Sidney
d. The Earl of Oxford
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Question 17
Who of the following were among Shakespeare’s royal patrons?
Choose one answer.
a. King James I.
b. King Henry
c. Queen Victoria
d. King Richard
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Question 18
Who was Shakespeare’s wife?
Choose one answer.
a. Elizabeth Marlowe
b. Joan Shakespeare
c. Anne Hathaway
d. Juliet Shakespeare
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Question 19
Who was the Queen of England throughout much of Shakespeare’s early life?
Choose one answer.
a. Queen Elizabeth
b. Queen Victoria
c. Queen Anne
d. Queen Gertrude
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Question 20
William Shakespeare’s father primarily worked as which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. A politician
b. A teacher
c. A glover
d. A professional actor
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Question 21
At the end of the play, “Twelfth Night,” who is discovered to have been secretly married?
Choose one answer.
a. Viola and Orsino
b. Sir Toby and Maria
c. Malvio and Maria
d. Viola and Sir Toby
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Question 22
Fill in the blank. According to Dr. Debora Schwartz, Greek “old comedy” was often characterized as being ___________________.
Choose one answer.
a. Highly sexual
b. Not comedic at all
c. Satirical and political
d. Grounded in religion
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Question 23
Fill in the blank. According to Dr. Debra Schwartz, Greek “new comedy” was often characterized as being _________________.
Choose one answer.
a. Highly sexual
b. Violent
c. Satirical
d. Dull and political
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Question 24
Fill in the blank. In the play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Puck is also known as _______________.
Choose one answer.
a. Oberon
b. Robin Goodfellow
c. Demetrius
d. Hermia
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Question 25
In the play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” who is the queen of the fairies?
Choose one answer.
a. Titania
b. Lysander
c. Hermia
d. Oberon
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Question 26
In the play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” where is Helena from?
Choose one answer.
a. Paris
b. Naples
c. Athens
d. London
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Question 27
In the play, “A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream,” who is the queen of the Amazons?
Choose one answer.
a. Hippolyta
b. Egeus
c. Helena
d. Hermia
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Question 28
In the play, “Twelfth Night,” what country is Orisono from?
Choose one answer.
a. France
b. Denmark
c. Illyria
d. England
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Question 29
In the play, “Twelfth Night,” what does Viola refer to herself as when she disguises herself as a man?
Choose one answer.
a. Orsino
b. Sir Toby
c. Antonio
d. Cesario
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Question 30
In the play, “Twelfth Night,” who is Sebastian?
Choose one answer.
a. Viola’s twin brother
b. Viola’s eventual lover
c. A clown
d. Olivia’s uncle
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Question 31
In the play, “Twelfth Night,” who rescues Sebastian after his shipwreck?
Choose one answer.
a. Antonio
b. Maria
c. Olivia
d. None of the above
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Question 32
In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” who is chosen to play Pyramus in the craftsmen’s play?
Choose one answer.
a. Peter Quince
b. Francis Flute
c. Nick Bottom
d. Tom Snout
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Question 33
In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” who is Nick Bottom?
Choose one answer.
a. An Athenian craftsman
b. A professional actor
c. A Duke
d. An Amazonian
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Question 34
In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” who says “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (III.ii.15)?
Choose one answer.
a. Puck
b. Nick Bottom
c. Hippolyta
d. Helene
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Question 35
What country does the play, “All’s Well that Ends Well,” take place in?
Choose one answer.
a. England
b. Denmark
c. Spain
d. France
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Question 36
What is the craftsmen’s play at the end of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” about?
Choose one answer.
a. Puck’s adventures
b. Summertime dreams
c. The history of Athens
d. Pyramus and Thisbe
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Question 37
Who is Bertram’s main companion throughout much of the play, “All’s Well that Ends Well”?
Choose one answer.
a. Parolles
b. Lafew
c. The First Lord
d. The Clown
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Question 38
Who is the central heroine of the play, “Twelfth Night”?
Choose one answer.
a. Viola
b. Orsino
c. Maria
d. Feste
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Question 39
“All’s Well that Ends Well” is considered to be what kind of a play?
Choose one answer.
a. History
b. Comedy
c. Tragedy
d. Epic poem
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Question 40
Who is the heroine of the play, “All’s Well that Ends Well”?
Choose one answer.
a. Helena
b. Gertrude
c. Parolles
d. Mariana
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Question 41
According to Dr. Roger Dunkle, in ancient times, what was considered a tragedy?
Choose one answer.
a. A worship of the gods
b. A song for the prize or sacrifice of a goat
c. A comedic performance
d. A story that ended with a marriage
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Question 42
Fill in the blank. In the play, “Macbeth,” a number of characters refer to the Three Witches as ________________.
Choose one answer.
a. “The violent trio”
b. “The Fatal Sisters”
c. “The Weird Sisters”
d. “The Dead Sisters”
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Question 43
In his lectures on Shakespeare’s tragedies, A.C. Bradley states that he will not do which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. Compare Shakespeare to other writers.
b. Evaluate and examine Hamlet.
c. Consider anything about Shakespeare’s comedies.
d. Discuss any aspect of Shakespeare’s philosophy.
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Question 44
In the play, “Hamlet,” what is the name of Polonius’s daughter?
Choose one answer.
a. Laertes
b. Ophelia
c. Gertrude
d. Fortinbras
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Question 45
In the play, “Hamlet,” who is Yorick?
Choose one answer.
a. King Hamlet’s former jester
b. A friend of Hamlet’s from school
c. The King of Norway
d. A castle guard
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Question 46
In the play, “Macbeth,” according to the witches, who will inherit the Scottish throne?
Choose one answer.
a. The children of Macbeth
b. The children of Banquo
c. The children of Macduff
d. The children of the witches
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Question 47
In the play, “Macbeth,” how does Macbeth kill Duncan?
Choose one answer.
a. He shoots him.
b. He strangles him.
c. He stabs him.
d. He beheads him.
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Question 48
In the play, “Macbeth,” who asks “Whence is that knocking?” (2.11.55)
Choose one answer.
a. Macbeth
b. Lady Macbeth
c. Duncan
d. Macduff
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Question 49
In the play, “Macbeth,” who assists Macbeth with planning Duncan’s murder?
Choose one answer.
a. Banquo
b. Macduff
c. Malcolm
d. Lady Macbeth
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Question 50
In the play, “Macbeth,” who becomes king immediately after Duncan’s murder?
Choose one answer.
a. Macbeth
b. Banquo
c. Macduff
d. Malcolm
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Question 51
In the play, “Macbeth,” who is the goddess of witchcraft?
Choose one answer.
a. Lennox
b. Lady Macbeth
c. The porter
d. Hecate
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Question 52
In “Hamlet,” what is Hamlet’s uncle’s name?
Choose one answer.
a. Polonius
b. Claudius
c. Horatio
d. Fortinbras
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Question 53
In “Hamlet,” which character is left alive at the end of the play?
Choose one answer.
a. Hamlet
b. Claudius
c. Horatio
d. Gertrude
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Question 54
In “Hamlet,” who says that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”?
Choose one answer.
a. Claudius
b. Horatio
c. Hamlet
d. Marcellus
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Question 55
In “Macbeth,” where is Macduff when he learns of his family’s execution?
Choose one answer.
a. England
b. France
c. Scotland
d. Norway
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Question 56
The play, “Hamlet,” takes place in which of the following countries?
Choose one answer.
a. Denmark
b. Norway
c. England
d. France
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Question 57
The play, “Macbeth,” is set in what country?
Choose one answer.
a. England
b. Scotland
c. France
d. Norway
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Question 58
Who is King of Scotland at the start of the play, “Macbeth”?
Choose one answer.
a. Macbeth
b. Banquo
c. Duncan
d. Donalbain
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Question 59
Who kills Macbeth at the end of the play, “Macbeth”?
Choose one answer.
a. Duncan
b. Lady Macbeth
c. Lady Macduff
d. Macduff
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Question 60
Hamlet is considered to be what kind of play?
Choose one answer.
a. Comedy
b. History
c. Tragedy
d. Epic poem
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Question 61
At the end of the play “Richard III,” what happens to Richard?
Choose one answer.
a. He is killed.
b. He is arrested.
c. He is crowned king.
d. He was sent into exile.
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Question 62
Dr. Ian Johnson suggests which of the following ideas about the play, “Henry V”?
Choose one answer.
a. That it is a satire of European monarchies
b. That none of the characters undergo a remarkable shift in personality over the course of the play
c. That it is historically accurate
d. That it is an incomplete play and possibly not authored by Shakespeare
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Question 63
In Shakespeare’s play, Henry V is king of what country?
Choose one answer.
a. England
b. Norway
c. Denmark
d. France
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Question 64
In the play “Richard III,” where does Richard imprison the young princes?
Choose one answer.
a. In a tower
b. In a pit
c. In a prison
d. In another country
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Question 65
In the play, “Henry V,” the Chorus serves to do which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. Make jokes about Henry
b. Sing songs about the events
c. Comment on the plot and themes of the play
d. Dance upon the stage
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Question 66
In the play, “Henry V,” what country does Henry wish to conquer?
Choose one answer.
a. England
b. Spain
c. France
d. Denmark
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Question 67
In the play, “Henry V,” who is the close friend and mentor of young Henry?
Choose one answer.
a. Montjoy
b. Horatio
c. Falstaff
d. Nim
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Question 68
In the play, “Henry V,” who is the daughter of the King of France?
Choose one answer.
a. Catherine
b. Alice
c. The Hostess
d. Nim
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Question 69
In the play, “Henry V,” who is the Queen of France?
Choose one answer.
a. Queen Isabel
b. Queen Nim
c. Queen Alice
d. Queen Montjoy
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Question 70
In the play, “Henry V,” who states that “If we are marked to die, we are enough/To do our country loss…” (IV.iii.20-21)?
Choose one answer.
a. Falstaff
b. Henry V
c. Nim
d. Catherine
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Question 71
In the play, “Richard III,” who does Richard hire to kill the young princes?
Choose one answer.
a. Ratcliffe
b. Richmond
c. Clarence
d. Tyrell
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Question 72
In the play, “Richard III,” who is manipulated into marrying Richard?
Choose one answer.
a. Lady Anne
b. Queen Elizabeth
c. Duchess of York
d. Margaret
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Question 73
In the play, “Richard III,” who is Richard’s primary accomplice?
Choose one answer.
a. Buckingham
b. Clarence
c. Tyrell
d. Richmond
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Question 74
In the play, “Richard III,” who is Richard’s elder brother?
Choose one answer.
a. Clarence
b. King Edward IV
c. Tyrell
d. Richmond
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Question 75
In the play, “Richard III,” who is the mother of Prince Edward?
Choose one answer.
a. Lady Anne
b. Queen Elizabeth
c. Margaret
d. Duchess of York
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Question 76
In the play, “Richard III,” who speaks of “the winter of our discontent” (I.i.1)?
Choose one answer.
a. Richmond
b. Queen Elizabeth
c. Richard III
d. The princes
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Question 77
The play, “Richard III,” takes place in what country?
Choose one answer.
a. Greece
b. France
c. Norway
d. England
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Question 78
What century does the play, “Henry V,” take place in?
Choose one answer.
a. 15th century
b. 16th century
c. 14th century
d. 17th century
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Question 79
Who directly challenges Richard for the throne in the play, “Richard III”?
Choose one answer.
a. Tyrell
b. King Edward IV
c. Queen Elizabeth
d. The Earl of Richmond
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Question 80
What type of play is “Richard III”?
Choose one answer.
a. Tragedy
b. History
c. Comedy
d. Lyric
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Question 81
Blank verse refers to which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. Prose
b. Unrhymed iambic pentameter
c. Rhyming verse
d. Rhyming couplets
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Question 82
Fill in the blank. In Shakespeare’s plays, prose is often used in _______________.
Choose one answer.
a. Serious letters
b. Iambic pentameter
c. Rhyming verse
d. Couplets
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Question 83
Fill in the blank. The plot of “Venus and Adonis” is based on passages from ______________.
Choose one answer.
a. The Bible
b. A Christopher Marlowe play
c. Ovid’s Metamorphoses
d. An early Shakespeare play
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Question 84
For his poems, Shakespeare is thought to have drawn upon all of the following for influence and ideas EXCEPT:
Choose one answer.
a. Greek mythology
b. European history
c. Early scientific studies
d. The works of earlier poets
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Question 85
How many sonnets are attributed to Shakespeare?
Choose one answer.
a. 12
b. 67
c. 154
d. 200
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Question 86
In his reading of Shakespeare’s “Fair Youth Sonnets,” who does Charlton Ogburn suppose Shakespeare to have really been?
Choose one answer.
a. Marlowe
b. Swift
c. Oxford
d. Bacon
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Question 87
In Shakespeare’s plays, when is rhyme often used?
Choose one answer.
a. When ghosts speak
b. When characters speak naturally
c. When a lower class character speaks
d. When the play necessitates ritualistic, choral, and sensuous effect
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Question 88
In Shakespeare’s “Venus and Adonis,” how is Adonis killed?
Choose one answer.
a. In a hunting accident
b. By Venus
c. By execution
d. By old age
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Question 89
In the narrative poem, “The Rape of Lucrece,” who is Lucretia?
Choose one answer.
a. A fairy queen
b. A Roman matron
c. A villainess
d. A beggar woman
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Question 90
Shakespeare often employed which of the following stylistic forms in his dramas?
Choose one answer.
a. Blank verse
b. Old English
c. Authorial narration
d. Prose
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Question 91
Shakespeare sometimes used the trochee, which in meter refers to which of the following? In Shakespeare’s plays, a troche is:
Choose one answer.
a. The same as an iamb with an unstressed and stressed syllable in a foot
b. The opposite of an iamb with a stressed and then unstressed syllable in a foot
c. Only one syllable for the length of a foot
d. None of the above
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Question 92
Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 153” is what kind of poem?
Choose one answer.
a. A poem about death
b. A poem about love
c. A poem about writing poetry
d. A poem about Shakespeare and his father
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Question 93
The concept of “prose” refers to which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. Ordinary speech
b. Blank verse
c. Rhyming verse
d. Non-English word use
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Question 94
Where does the sonnet form originate from?
Choose one answer.
a. England
b. Spain
c. France
d. Italy
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Question 95
Which of the following are not among the subjects of Shakespeare’s sonnets?
Choose one answer.
a. The Dark Lady
b. Shakespeare’s father
c. A young man
d. A rival poet
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Question 96
Which of the following poems is considered to be the most neglected of Shakespeare’s?
Choose one answer.
a. “A Lover’s Complaint”
b. “Venus and Adonis”
c. “The Phoenix and Turtle”
d. “The Rape of Lucrece”
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Question 97
Which of the following poems was authored by Shakespeare?
Choose one answer.
a. “Tintern Abbey”
b. “A Lover’s Complaint”
c. “El Cid”
d. “The Wasteland”
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Question 98
Which of the following statements about a sonnet is false?
Choose one answer.
a. A sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines.
b. A Shakespearean sonnet consists of the rhyme scheme a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g.
c. A sonnet is only written in Italian.
d. The last two lines of a sonnet are a rhyming couplet.
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Question 99
Who is the main focus of a number of Shakespeare’s sonnets?
Choose one answer.
a. The Dark Lady
b. Hamlet
c. Christopher Marlow
d. Hamnet Shakespeare
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Question 100
What literary genre is Shakespeare’s “Venus and Adonis”?
Choose one answer.
a. Short story
b. Tragedy play
c. Comedy play
d. Poetry
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