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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Lincoln's new attitude toward God after Ann's death?
(a) He can't pray to a God that needlessly allowed Ann to die.
(b) He becomes an atheist.
(c) He accepts that "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away."
(d) He knows if he had prayed day and night, Ann would have lived.

2. How does Lincoln intend to communicate his intentions to Mary Todd?
(a) In a letter.
(b) In person.
(c) In an email.
(d) In a telegram.

3. Who is Ann Rutledge?
(a) Lincoln's aunt.
(b) The woman Abe Lincoln wants to court.
(c) A nun who has taken up the monastic life in Illinois.
(d) The postmistress of New Salem.

4. What is the wedding gift Ninian has brought Abe?
(a) A silver box of fine cigars.
(b) A stovepipe hat that will become Lincon's signature.
(c) A slave.
(d) A fine, silver-headed cane.

5. In a poem given to Lincoln by his teacher in the first scene, life is compared to what?
(a) A fairy tale, a legend, a lie.
(b) A nightmare, a hallucination, a ghost.
(c) A dream, a vision, a phantom.
(d) A river, a meadow, the wide horizon.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Act 2, Scene 5, does Lincoln ask Mary Todd to marry him?

2. Besides debt, what topic often occupies Lincoln's mind?

3. What is happening when Lincoln enters Rutledge Tavern to deliver mail?

4. What is Bowling Green's attitude toward the possibility of Lincoln marrying Ann Rutledge?

5. In Scene 2, Act 4, Lincoln receives a letter from his old friend, Seth Gale. What is Gale worrying about?

Short Essay Questions

1. Lincoln is reluctant to consider running for State Assembly. What is his main objection?

2. What does Lincoln tell his friends in Act 2, Scene 4, in the discussion about his lack of political ambition and his unwillingness to speak publicly against slavery?

3. Josh Speed arrives to visit with Abe at the Greens' house. When Lincoln isn't there, Speed fills them in on Lincoln's activities in the State Assembly. What has Lincoln accomplished in the year since he's been elected?

4. Nancy Green and Bowling Green have a disagreement about whether Ann Rutledge is good for Lincoln. What are their respective opinions?

5. How does Mary Todd characterize the man her sister married and the life they have together? And what is wrong with that life, according to Mary Todd?

6. Does Lincoln appear to be emotionally stable just after he announces the death of Ann Rutledge?

7. Act 1, Scene 2 portrays Lincoln's first step toward a political destiny. The audience (or reader) knows that Lincoln will become one of the country's great Presidents. What symbols does the author use in this scene to heighten that feeling of political destiny?

8. The informal committee that came to recruit Lincoln to run for State Assembly in Act 1, Scene 2 has a larger political purpose in mind. What is it?

9. Does Lincoln's teacher agree or disagree with the argument Webster makes for maintaining the Union in the speech Lincoln reads in the first scene of the play?

10. Josh Speed and Bowling Green are longtime friends of Lincoln's; they have urged him for years to seek higher political office. In Act 2, Scene 4, what is their attitude toward Lincoln's reluctance to run for an important elected position?

(see the answer keys)

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