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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Mrs. Bergmann wonder about Wendla in the first scene?
(a) She wonders if Wendla is aware of her changing body.
(b) She wonders what sort of mother Wendla will make.
(c) She wonders if Wendla will survive her adolescence.
(d) She wonders what Wendla will look like in a few years.

2. What is the most important relationship depicted in A Children's Tragedy?
(a) Ilsa and Moritz's near romance.
(b) Melchior and Wendla's relationship.
(c) The bond between Moritz and his father.
(d) The friendship between Moritz and Melchior.

3. What does Moritz believe about why students will flunk out of their class?
(a) He believes students that are flunked are victims of class discrimination.
(b) He believes that students who flunk are too smart for school.
(c) He believes that the school is making the class small enough to fit in next year's classroom.
(d) He believes students who flunk are merely lazy.

4. How many years after the initial publication was the play performed in America?
(a) 35.
(b) 25.
(c) It has never been produced in America.
(d) 20.

5. How does Melchior feel about people who end up in Hell because they do not enjoy visiting the poor?
(a) It is entirely their fault.
(b) It is society's fault for putting the pressure on them.
(c) It is the Church's fault.
(d) It is through no fault of their own.

6. How is Wendla's body, in terms of maturation?
(a) Well-developed.
(b) Matronly.
(c) Very under-developed.
(d) Slightly below average.

7. In what form does the play begin?
(a) Experimental.
(b) Realism.
(c) Absurdism.
(d) Expressionism.

8. What is Thanatos according to Bentley?
(a) A drive towards life.
(b) Sexual love.
(c) Driving towards death.
(d) Romantic love.

9. What form does the play evolve into?
(a) Expressionism.
(b) Absurdism.
(c) Realism.
(d) Experimental.

10. What is a Moritat?
(a) A story written backwards.
(b) A short statement.
(c) A postscript.
(d) A short poem.

11. Why does Moritz commit suicide?
(a) He has been held back in school.
(b) He feels responsible for Wendla's abortion.
(c) He gets Ilsa pregnant.
(d) He believes he is gay.

12. Why did Martha, after being punished for the ribbon, come back inside?
(a) She was being chased by boys.
(b) She was naked and it was cold.
(c) She was too clothed for the heat.
(d) She was lonely.

13. What sort of story is A Children's Tragedy?
(a) Morality play.
(b) Absurdism.
(c) Theater of Cruelty.
(d) Coming-of-age.

14. For how long may Wendla wear her old dress?
(a) One more year.
(b) One more week.
(c) One more summer.
(d) One more month.

15. How many students in Melchior and Moritz's class will be allowed to graduate to the next grade?
(a) Seventy.
(b) Forty.
(c) Sixty.
(d) Fifty.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to the masked man, what is morality?

2. What does Wendla ask of Melchior at the end of Act 1?

3. In the brief summary given in the introduction, what concept is Melchior struggling with?

4. In the first scene, what does Wendla wonder about her future?

5. Despite the complexity of A Children's Tragedy what striking aspect is the most widely known about this play?

(see the answer keys)

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