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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What blunder does Rosencrantz make with the introductions?
(a) He talks down to the Player as though he were a Lord.
(b) He cannot recall Guildenstern's name.
(c) He fails to mention their names.
(d) He confuses their names, calling himself Guildenstern.

2. When the troupe moves on, why does the Player stand in one place?
(a) He waits for Guildenstern to give him permission to leave.
(b) His foot is on Guildenstern's coin.
(c) He is drunk and cannot walk.
(d) He's waiting for guildenstern to pay him.

3. What strange comment does Rosencrantz make about questions?
(a) That he understands the questions but has no answers.
(b) That he remembers when there were no questions.
(c) That questions always lead to more questions.
(d) That questions give him a headache.

4. Grabbing hold of the Player angrily, how does Guildenstern excuse himself?
(a) He pretends to black out.
(b) He says he tripped on a rock in the road.
(c) He reminds the Player that he had offered audience participation.
(d) He says he was merely testing the Player's reflexes.

5. How many times does Rosencrantz say he has won the game?
(a) Seventy nine
(b) Fifty six
(c) One hundred
(d) Eighty five

6. How does Guildenstern summarize that day?
(a) Right after breakfast they got a summons for jury duty.
(b) They got a message to come quickly but it did not tell them where.
(c) they were sleeping and suddenly found themselves on a road they don't know.
(d) They were awakened at dawn with a message, a summons, and a new record for heads and tails.

7. What is the Player's response when Guildenstern asks if the troupe found them by chance?
(a) He says nothing is pure chance.
(b) He says they heard the clinking of his coins.
(c) He says it is in their script.
(d) He says it was.

8. What is the source of the sounds Rosencrantz had heard?
(a) Six travellers who claim they saw a unicorn
(b) Six "Tragedians" or traveling actors, musicians, and their leader
(c) Six milkmaids heading for the market
(d) Six men on white horses with bells

9. What does Rosencrantz say that Guildenstern must be feeling?
(a) Weariness
(b) Anger
(c) Poorer
(d) Boredom

10. How is it obvious that the two men have been playing the gambling game for a long time?
(a) Guildenstern's bag is nearly empty while Rosencrantz's bag is full.
(b) Rosencrantz keeps saying he is tired of playing the game.
(c) Guildenstern asks Rosencrantz to loan him more coins.
(d) There are coins scattered all over the stage.

11. How is the Player still trying to appeal to prurient interest to get more money?
(a) He tells Guildenstern that for a price they will do King Lear in the nude.
(b) He winks at Guildenstern and suggests he would like to participate in something other than fighting.
(c) He asks Guildenstern if he would like the troupe to remove their clothes.
(d) He confides to Guildenstern that, for a price, he has a bawdy performance of The Rape of the Sabine Women.

12. Why does Rosencrantz's answer please Guildenstern?
(a) It assures him that the law of self interest is still working.
(b) It tells him that Rosencrantz is hiding a secret.
(c) It tells him that he will soon start winning.
(d) It tells him that no natural laws are at work at the moment.

13. What new theory does Guildenstern come up with for his run of bad luck?
(a) That his arm has grown too tired to toss properly.
(b) That he is somehow willing for Rosencrantz to win.
(c) That he needs to learn how to toss coins.
(d) That the coins are heavier on one side than the other.

14. In what way is Rosencrantz defensive as he discusses the game with Guildenstern?
(a) He offers to give back all the coins.
(b) He points out that Guildenstern has done all the spinning.
(c) He suggests that guildenstern is trying to lose.
(d) He declares that he always has good luck at gambling.

15. What is Rosencrantz's reaction to the way the game keeps going?
(a) He thinks something is odd about the game.
(b) He is a little embarrassed because he keeps winning.
(c) He laughs and whistles every time he wins a coin.
(d) He is upset because Guildenstern will run out of coins.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who enters after Hamlet and Ophelia exit the stage?

2. Who are the well-dressed Elizabethan gentlemen at the opening of the play?

3. What does Claudius request of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?

4. Trying to determine what Rosencrantz wants to see, what does the Player mention not too subtly?

5. What is odd about the gambling game Guildenstern plays with Rosencrantz?

(see the answer keys)

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