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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 is the first story told by the fire chief in The Bald Soprano?

2. What does the pupil say she doesn't know all of yet and has trouble learning them in The Lesson?

3. The professor states in The Lesson, "every tongue is at bottom nothing but _____."

4. When the pupil begins to seem ill, what does she say is wrong with her?

5. In The Bald Soprano, who tells the audience, "My real name is Sherlock Holmes"?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. What does the maid interrupt the professor and pupil for?

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

6. What does the professor do after the death of the pupil?

7. What is the beginning conversation between the Smiths and the Martins like?

8. What is similar about The Bald Soprano to the other plays in the book?

9. What does the fire chief say upon leaving? How does this tie into the title of The Bald Soprano?

10. Which objects in The Lesson are "real?" Which are not?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Discuss the ending of the play, The Chairs. What happens in the ending? Why? What is the point of the orator's words or lack thereof?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the theme of submission and conformity in the play Jack, or The Submission. How does this theme manifest itself?

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