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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Rosencrantz ask Guildenstern about death?
(a) If he thinks death is like falling asleep for a while
(b) If he has ever thought of himself as dead, in a box with a lid on it
(c) If he is afraid to face death
(d) If he thinks he will never die

2. What game do they play to occupy the time?
(a) The coin spinning game
(b) The guessing game with coins
(c) A game of chess
(d) Twenty questions

3. What does Rosencrantz tell the Player about Hamlet?
(a) That he may be an imposter.
(b) That he is not acting like himself.
(c) That he won't talk to them.
(d) That he keeps changing the subject.

4. What is seen in their failure to trap Hamlet with their belts?
(a) That Guldenstern is wearing two belts
(b) That Rosencrantz wears his pants too large
(c) That they are once again inept or helpless
(d) That they are clever but unlucky

5. What mime does Rosencrantz perform during the discussion of death?
(a) Placing flowers on a grave.
(b) Banging on a coffin lid.
(c) Marching in a funeral procession.
(d) Lying down in a coffin.

6. Beside the two British Ambassadors, what characters from Shakespeare are on stage at the end of the play?
(a) Othello and Iago
(b) Ophelia and Gertrude
(c) Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony
(d) Horatio and Fortinbras

7. How does the audience know that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern still do not know where they are?
(a) Rosencrantz asks if they are in China.
(b) Guildenstern thinks they are in a jail but he cannot see.
(c) Rosencrantz thinks they are in a hospital.
(d) Guildenstern asks if he is there and Rosencrantz asks where.

8. What do the sounds in the background at the opening of Act III suggest?
(a) That the scene is on a ship
(b) That the scene is in a jail
(c) That a battle is going on
(d) That the scene is in a carriage.

9. Talking about acting on assumptions, what does the Player ask the two men?
(a) He asks them if they are ready to assume.
(b) He asks them if they understand the word, assume.
(c) He asks them why they didn't know that.
(d) He asks them what it is that they assume.

10. Why is the troupe in disfavor from the King?
(a) Their costumes were shabby.
(b) He did not like their play.
(c) They got drunk at court.
(d) They insulted Gertrude.

11. What happens to the troupe still dressed in their costumes?
(a) They all die in different ways.
(b) They walk off the stage.
(c) They drag Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to center stage.
(d) They join the audience.

12. What does Rosencrantz realize about the costumes of two of the troupe?
(a) They are too shabby to wear to court
(b) They are garments taken from his closet
(c) They are identical to his and Guildenstern's
(d) They have been stolen from the palace

13. As they are discussing the letter, who emerges from behind the umbrellas and walks toward the lantern?
(a) The soldier
(b) The ship's captain
(c) The troupe
(d) Hamlet

14. What does Claudius tell Guildenstern and Rosencrantz?
(a) That Hamlet has killed Polonius
(b) That Gertrude is looking for them
(c) That the show is about to start
(d) That Ophelia has gone to a nunnery

15. What are the lines from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act II, Scene ii that Hamlet says as Act Two opens?
(a) The forest is coming to Elsinore.
(b) Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well.
(c) S'blood, there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out.
(d) Out, out, damned spot.

Short Answer Questions

1. What question does Guildenstern put to the Player?

2. What makes Hamlet bow?

3. How does Hamlet respond when Guildenstern asks how Hamlet's mother and Uncle are deceived?

4. To lighten the discussion, what does Rosencrantz tell Guildenstern?

5. What play does Hamlet ask the Player if his troupe can perform?

(see the answer keys)

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