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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the professor go and take out of the drawer in the end of The Lesson?

2. In The Lesson, the professor says that "our contemporary life has become most" what?

3. What is Mrs. Martin's first name in The Bald Soprano?

4. The pupil asks the Professor, "are all the roots of words ____?"

5. In The Lesson, the pupil says, "I know my ______, don't I, Professor?"

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the distinguishing qualities of the set and the Smiths in The Bald Soprano.

2. What do the Smiths and Martins respond to the fire chief? What does he do afterward?

3. As the lesson continues, how does the professor's and the pupil's demeanor change?

4. What is Absurdism and how does it inhabit the four plays of the book?

5. What does Mary say in her aside to the audience in The Bald Soprano?

6. What does the ending of The Bald Soprano mean?

7. What is the effect of reading the stage directions before the action in The Lesson?

8. Why are the initial stage directions atypical in The Lesson?

9. How does the professor attempt to teach the pupil arithmetic?

10. What story does Mary tell the Smiths and Martins?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare the characters of Jack, from Jack, or The Submission, and the Pupil from The Lesson. How are they similar? How are they different?

Essay Topic 2

What is the author's overall message in these plays? What does this have to do with Absurdism and Existentialism? What is Ionesco's philosophy on life and its meaning?

Essay Topic 3

Compare the Smiths and the Martins in The Bald Soprano. How do these characters switch roles in the play? What is the meaning of this?

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