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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 does Willy find frustrating about the appliances he has bought over the years?
(a) They are not made by American companies.
(b) They are too expensive, badly designed and badly made.
(c) They have design faults.
(d) They wear out or break before he has fully paid for them.

2. What reason does Willy give for refusing Charley's offer?
(a) He says he is too old to learn anything new.
(b) He says the offer is not generous enough.
(c) He stresses that he already has a job.
(d) He is insulted.

3. How did Ben and Willy's father support his family financially as they traveled?
(a) By selling agricultural machinery he had invented
(b) By selling the flutes he had made
(c) By working in bars
(d) By giving flute concerts in every town they visited

4. What does Howard say about his new wire recorder?
(a) It will be the communicatioin tool of the future.
(b) It is the most fascinating relaxation he has ever found.
(c) He thinks it represents a new product that Willy might sell.
(d) It will soon be outdated and he regrets buying it.

5. What is wrong with Biff whistling in the elevator?
(a) It indicates he is over confident.
(b) It is tuneless.
(c) It annoys other people in the lift.
(d) It indicates he is irresponsible and childish.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Willy, what has left him unsettled and "temporary?"

2. What advice does Willy remember Ben giving him?

3. Why does Willy admire Dave Singleman?

4. What does Charley kid Willy about?

5. What does Willy's plan for cutting off the tree branch show us about him?

Short Essay Questions

1. Comment about Willy's assertion that "I never in my life told him anything but decent things."

2. What is revealed about Willy during his hallucinatory return to the past?

3. In the card game scene, what evidence of Willy's unused abilities is presented?

4. What is the significance of the way the Loman house is presented when the play begins?

5. What does the audience learn about Linda from her great confrontation with her sons in Act 1?

6. In what picturesque way does Linda reinforce for Biff that his father needs support and nurturing?

7. Explain the significance of Ben's words, "I have many enterprises, William, and I have never kept books."

8. What does this conversation with Biff reveal about Happy's character?

9. In what sense is Willy ironic when he comments that it is obscene for Biff not to have found himself by the age of thirty-four?

10. What is Happy's attitude to the news that his father is contemplating suicide?

(see the answer keys)

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