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Quiz about From Beowulf to Virginia Woolf

From Beowulf to Virginia Woolf Quiz

Random questions from literature: prose, poetry and plays

A multiple-choice quiz by syamamegham. Estimated time: 6 mins.

Author
syamamegham

Time
6 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
381,093

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Difficult

Avg Score
4 / 10

Plays
235

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. Robert Browning's dramatic monologue "My Last Duchess" is subtitled as what? Hint

Ferrara

Neptune taming sea horse

Porphyria

Lucrezia

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Question 2 of 10

2. The line "Where ignorant armies clash by night", from Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" is generally thought to refer to a battle in which historical event? Hint

Peloponnesian War

Spanish Armada

Crimean War

Trojan War

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Question 3 of 10

3. What does the term "Dianoe" in Aristotle's "Poetics" stand for? Hint

Spectacle

Thought

Character

Diction

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Question 4 of 10

4. Identify the author of this quotation: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds". Hint

Joseph Addison

Wiiliam Shakespeare

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Francis Bacon

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Question 5 of 10

5. In Doris Lessing's "The Golden Notebook", which notebook of the protagonist (Anna Wulf) contains a painful ending of Anna's own love affair? Hint

Red

Blue

Golden

Yellow

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Question 6 of 10

6. In Pinter's "Birthday Party", McCann and Stanley whistle a famous song. Name it. Hint

Molly Malone

Three Blind Mice

The Mountains of Morne

Farewell and Adieu

7. "We must sin and so consequently die.
Ay, we must die an everlasting death.
What doctrine call you this, Che sera sera"
("Dr. Faustus", Marlow)

What's the meaning of the expression "Che sera sera"? Hint

Then starts eternity

Death is the cure for all diseases

What will be shall be

Everything that has a beginning has an end

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Question 8 of 10

8. In Blake's "The Tyger", to what is the creator compared? Hint

A Goldsmith

A Blacksmith

An Artist

A Scientist

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Question 9 of 10

9. Expressions from "Beowulf" such as 'sky-candle', 'feed the eagle' and 'whale road' are examples of what? Hint

Antithesis

Litotes

Kenning

Syncope

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Question 10 of 10

10. Three great works of modernism got published in the year 1922: "The Waste Land", "Ulysses" and which of these? Hint

To the Lighthouse

A Room of One's Own

Mrs Dalloway

Jacob's Room

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Robert Browning's dramatic monologue "My Last Duchess" is subtitled as what?

Answer: Ferrara

The Duke Ferrara is the speaker of the poem, and tells us he is entertaining an emissary who has come to negotiate the Duke's marriage (he has recently been widowed) to the daughter of another powerful family.

2. The line "Where ignorant armies clash by night", from Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" is generally thought to refer to a battle in which historical event?

Answer: Peloponnesian War

The battle (the Athenian invasion of Sicily) took place at night and the attacking army became disoriented while fighting in the darkness. Many of their soldiers inadvertently killed each other.

3. What does the term "Dianoe" in Aristotle's "Poetics" stand for?

Answer: Thought

According to Aristotle, tragedy can be divided into six parts: mythos, ethos, dianoia, lexis, melos, and opsis. This refers to Greek tragedy plays.

4. Identify the author of this quotation: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds".

Answer: Ralph Waldo Emerson

The quote comes from "Self-Reliance", an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson.

5. In Doris Lessing's "The Golden Notebook", which notebook of the protagonist (Anna Wulf) contains a painful ending of Anna's own love affair?

Answer: Yellow

"The Golden Notebook" is the longest and the most ambitious work Doris Lessing has ever attempted to write. It is a masterpiece in portraiture of the manners, aspirations, anxieties and the particular problems of the times in which we live.

6. In Pinter's "Birthday Party", McCann and Stanley whistle a famous song. Name it.

Answer: The Mountains of Morne

Mccan's whistling of The Mountains of Morne (in which Stanley joins) creates a tense stand off between the two, suggesting that they've met before or once worked for the same organization.

7. "We must sin and so consequently die. Ay, we must die an everlasting death. What doctrine call you this, Che sera sera" ("Dr. Faustus", Marlow) What's the meaning of the expression "Che sera sera"?

Answer: What will be shall be

"Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" is also a popular song written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. The 2000 Hindi film "Pukar" has a song, "Kay Sera Sera", based on this. In 2015, the song was used in an anti-smoking public service announcement for the New York State Department of Health.

8. In Blake's "The Tyger", to what is the creator compared?

Answer: A Blacksmith

He is comparing the creation of the tiger to the work of a blacksmith with an anvil and furnace.

9. Expressions from "Beowulf" such as 'sky-candle', 'feed the eagle' and 'whale road' are examples of what?

Answer: Kenning

A kenning is a figurative expression that replaces a name or a noun. Often it is a compound of two words and the words are hyphenated. Kennings are usually associated with Old Norse, Icelandic, and Anglo Saxon poetry.

10. Three great works of modernism got published in the year 1922: "The Waste Land", "Ulysses" and which of these?

Answer: Jacob's Room

Published in 1922, the same year as "Ulysses" and "The Waste Land", "Jacob's Room" is Virginia Woolf's own modernist manifesto. Ostensibly a study of a young man's life on the eve of the Great War, it is really a bomb thrown into the world of the conventional novel, as she attempts to capture the richness and randomness of life's encounters.

Source: Author syamamegham

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