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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. Where is the setting for The Lesson?

2. What does the professor use to demonstrate numbers in The Lesson?

3. In The Bald Soprano, who says, "never. It is only the first three times that count"?

4. How long has the professor lived in this town in The Lesson?

5. What does the maid urge the professor to remain in the beginning of The Lesson?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Describe the professor's discourse on philology.

3. Describe the doorbell in The Bald Soprano.

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

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

6. Describe the fire chief's arrival in The Bald Soprano.

7. What happens in the beginning of The Lesson? What is the setting?

8. What do the Smiths and Martins do after the fire chief has left?

9. How does the ending of The Lesson relate to the other plays' endings in the collection?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the title of the play, The Bald Soprano. Where does this line occur in the text? What is the significance of this?

Essay Topic 2

Compare the characters of the professor in The Lesson to the old man in The Chairs. What similarities do they share? What differences?

Essay Topic 3

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

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