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

2. What makes Liza happy at the end of the evening?
(a) Higgins promises to give her lessons.
(b) She sold all her flowers.
(c) Higgins gives her a pocketful of change.
(d) Freddy is falling in love with her.

3. Why can't Liza read what Higgins writes?
(a) He uses a phonetic alphabet.
(b) It is written in French, a language she doesn't know.
(c) It is written in a cryptic code.
(d) She is uneducated and has never learned how to read.

4. Where does Liza tell Freddy she is going at the end of Act 1?
(a) Home.
(b) To see Higgins.
(c) To jump in the river.
(d) Buckingham Palace.

5. What happened to Liza's parents?
(a) They are too poor to take care of her, so she lives on her own.
(b) She has no parents; they are dead.
(c) She has no mother, and her father and stepmother kicked her out.
(d) Her father is gone and her stepfather beats her.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where is Act 1 of the play set?

2. Who is Alexander Melville Bell?

3. What happens to the Flower Girl's basket?

4. Of what does Mrs. Pearce warn Higgins?

5. What does Sweet send Shaw?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why, according to Shaw, is it important that people be trained scientifically to lose their accents, rather than simply learning by imitation?

2. What does the Flower Girl do at the end of Act 1 that shows she has a sense of pride and dignity about her?

3. Who is the note-taker, and what is he actually doing?

4. What are three methods of phonetic shorthand that Shaw mentions in Pygmalion, and what are they used for?

5. Why does the Flower Girl become upset at the note-taker? What is she most likely afraid of?

6. Why does Liza become upset when Mrs. Pearce takes her up for a bath? What does this incident show about Liza?

7. What does Higgins do for the Flower Girl? What prompts him to do so? What does this act suggest about Higgins?

8. What bet does Pickering make with Higgins? Why does Higgins accept?

9. What makes some English people despise others? What can we infer would solve this problem?

10. How does Higgins feel about women?

(see the answer keys)

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