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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is NOT one of Henry Higgins's faults?
(a) He sometimes has tantrums when things go wrong.
(b) He is careless about other people's feelings.
(c) He is willing to be malicious and cruel in order to get ahead.
(d) He can be a bully.

2. What does Higgins give Liza in Act 2 when she begins to cry?
(a) A shilling for the taxi.
(b) A whack on the bum with a broomstick.
(c) A handkerchief to wipe her nose with.
(d) A meal.

3. Which is true of Pygmalion at the time Shaw wrote his Preface?
(a) It is extremely successful on stage and screen all over North America and Europe.
(b) It is extremely successful on stage, and he hopes to make a movie of it.
(c) It is extremely successful in America, but not in Europe.
(d) It is extremely successful in Europe, and he hopes to make it so in America.

4. What is Higgins the author of?
(a) Spoken Sanscrit.
(b) Higgins's Universal Alphabet.
(c) The play that everyone has seen that evening.
(d) Famous books about Shakespeare and Milton.

5. What is one of Shaw's purposes in writing this play?
(a) To encourage people to value all types of accents in English.
(b) To let people know of the existence of phoneticians and how important they are.
(c) To make people aware of the social inequalities in England.
(d) To entertain people and make them forget their worries for another day.

6. How is Henry Higgins described?
(a) He is thin and feeble, but has a strong scientific mind.
(b) He is young and handsome, but sloppy in his dress.
(c) He is elderly and distinguished, with the appearance of a scholar.
(d) He is about forty years old, strong and energetic.

7. Which comment does Shaw make about the realism in his play?
(a) A transformation like the one made by the heroine is very possible in real life.
(b) Realism is not to be found in the theater.
(c) A transformation like the one made by the heroine is obviously not possible in real life.
(d) Realism is the only style that can be respected in the theater.

8. What are the Pitman and Gregg systems?
(a) Popular systems of shorthand.
(b) Successful business organizations.
(c) Phonetic alphabets.
(d) Early dictaphones.

9. What does the Gentleman (Pickering) study?
(a) Dialects spoken in India.
(b) Sociology, or the study of human social behavior.
(c) American and British slang.
(d) The psychology of poverty.

10. Which elements of the English alphabet have no agreed speech value?
(a) The consonants.
(b) The vowels and some consonants.
(c) The vowels.
(d) The consonants and some vowels.

11. What does Higgins say about women?
(a) He's happier without them and is a confirmed bachelor.
(b) He thinks all women are silly creatures, like animals.
(c) He thinks men are superior to women and should tell them what to do.
(d) He has a hard time controlling himself around beautiful women.

12. How does Higgins make his money?
(a) He is a professor at Oxford.
(b) He is an inventor.
(c) He teaches people to speak with a proper accent.
(d) He writes plays.

13. What insulting term does Higgins use to describe Liza in Act 2?
(a) Idle-headed fool.
(b) Foul-mouthed imp.
(c) Draggle-tailed guttersnipe.
(d) Filthy tramp.

14. How old is the Flower Girl?
(a) She has just turned twenty-one.
(b) She is "sweet sixteen."
(c) She is about eighteen or twenty.
(d) She is only fourteen or fifteen.

15. What is the strange man (Higgins) doing behind the pillar?
(a) Spying on Liza.
(b) Taking notes.
(c) Waiting for a taxicab.
(d) Hiding from the police.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Sweet think of the Pitman system?

2. Which of the following is among Liza's treasured possessions?

3. What does Higgins notice about Liza's father, Doolittle?

4. What is Liza afraid will kill her?

5. When does Shaw first become interested in the subject of phonetics?

(see the answer keys)

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