Unit Test Answers

Read the statement from a paper on The Importance of Being Earnest.The Importance of Being Earnest contains the features of a comedy of manners.

Read the beginning of The Importance of Being Earnest.Title: The Importance of Being Earnestby Oscar WildeThe Persons in the PlayJohn Worthing, J.P.Algernon MoncrieffRev. Canon Chasuble, D.D.Merriman, ButlerLane, ManservantLady BracknellHon. Gwendolen FairfaxCecily CardewMiss Prism, GovernessFirst ActSCENEMorning-room in Algernon’s flat in Half-Moon Street. The room is luxuriously and artistically furnished. The sound of a piano is heard in the adjoining room.[Lane is arranging afternoon tea on the table, and after the music has ceased, Algernon enters.]Algernon. Did you hear what I was playing, Lane?Lane. I didn’t think it polite to listen, sir.

Miss Prism. . . . The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.How does the epigram affect this scene?

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Read the passage from The Importance of Being Earnest.Lady Bracknell. . . . I think some preliminary inquiry on my part would not be out of place. Mr. Worthing, is Miss Cardew at all connected with any of the larger railway stations in London? I merely desire information. Until yesterday I had no idea that there were any families or persons whose origin was a Terminus.

How does Wilde poke fun at Victorian society in the passage? Select three answers.

Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.Jack. My dear Algy, you talk exactly as if you were a dentist. It is very vulgar to talk like a dentist when one isn’t a dentist. It produces a false impression.

To avoid vague pronouns and pronoun shifts, the writer should make sure that all pronouns

Which line from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest is a paradox?

Read the sentences.Rahul and Ori sorted through all the video games that were theirs. After counting it, Ori realized that between them, they had all the games in the series.

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Read the excerpt from H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds.But, looking, I presently saw something stirring within the shadow: greyish billowy movements, one above another, and then two luminous disks—like eyes. Then something resembling a little grey snake, about the thickness of a walking stick, coiled up out of the writhing middle, and wriggled in the air towards me—and then another.

Read the sentence.We decided to audition for the television show.

Read the sentence.The band members came to the hospital to visit a sick fan.

Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.Algernon. In the third place, I know perfectly well whom she will place me next to, to-night. She will place me next Mary Farquhar, who always flirts with her own husband across the dinner-table. That is not very pleasant. Indeed, it is not even decent . . . and that sort of thing is enormously on the increase. The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one’s clean linen in public. Besides, now that I know you to be a confirmed Bunburyist I naturally want to talk to you about Bunburying.

Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.Jack. I have lost both my parents.Lady Bracknell. To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

Read the passage from The Importance of Being Earnest.Gwendolen. [To Jack.] Darling!Algernon. [To Cecily.] Darling! [They fall into each other's arms.][Enter Merriman. When he enters he coughs loudly, seeing the situation.]Merriman. Ahem! Ahem! Lady Bracknell!Jack. Good heavens![Enter Lady Bracknell. The couples separate in alarm. Exit Merriman.]Lady Bracknell. Gwendolen! What does this mean?

Read the passage from The Importance of Being Earnest.Gwendolen. Let us preserve a dignified silence.Cecily. Certainly. It’s the only thing to do now. [Enter Jack followed by Algernon. They whistle some dreadful popular air from a British Opera.]Gwendolen. This dignified silence seems to produce an unpleasant effect.Cecily. A most distasteful one.Gwendolen. But we will not be the first to speak.Cecily. Certainly not.Gwendolen. Mr. Worthing, I have something very particular to ask you. Much depends on your reply.

Read the excerpt from Act III of The Importance of Being Earnest.Lady Bracknell. [Sitting down again.] A moment, Mr. Worthing. A hundred and thirty thousand pounds! And in the Funds! Miss Cardew seems to me a most attractive young lady, now that I look at her. Few girls of the present day have any really solid qualities, any of the qualities that last, and improve with time. We live, I regret to say, in an age of surfaces. [To Cecily.] Come over here, dear. [Cecily goes across.] Pretty child! your dress is sadly simple, and your hair seems almost as Nature might have left it. But we can soon alter all that. A thoroughly experienced French maid produces a really marvellous result in a very brief space of time. I remember recommending one to young Lady Lancing, and after three months her own husband did not know her.

Read the excerpt from Act III of The Importance of Being Earnest.Gwendolen. True! I had forgotten. There are principles at stake that one cannot surrender. Which of us should tell them? The task is not a pleasant one.Cecily. Could we not both speak at the same time?Gwendolen. An excellent idea! I nearly always speak at the same time as other people. Will you take the time from me?Cecily. Certainly. [Gwendolen beats time with uplifted finger.]Gwendolen and Cecily [Speaking together.] Your Christian names are still an insuperable barrier. That is all!

Which are the most accurate conclusions that can be drawn about Jack, given this dialogue and his reactions to Lady Bracknell? Select three options.

Read the passage from The Importance of Being Earnest.Jack. . . . Old Mr. Thomas Cardew, who adopted me when I was a little boy, made me in his will guardian to his grand-daughter, Miss Cecily Cardew. Cecily, who addresses me as her uncle from motives of respect that you could not possibly appreciate, lives at my place in the country under the charge of her admirable governess, Miss Prism.Algernon. Where is that place in the country, by the way?Jack. That is nothing to you, dear boy. You are not going to be invited . . .

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Read the passage from an essay on The Importance of Being Earnest.Chasuble. . . . Your brother was, I believe, unmarried, was he not?Jack. Oh yes.Miss Prism. [Bitterly.] People who live entirely for pleasure usually are.

Read the passage from The Importance of Being Earnest.Cecily. [Coming over very slowly.] But I don’t like German. It isn’t at all a becoming language. I know perfectly well that I look quite plain after my German lesson.Miss Prism. Child, you know how anxious your guardian is that you should improve yourself in every way. He laid particular stress on your German, as he was leaving for town yesterday. Indeed, he always lays stress on your German when he is leaving for town.Cecily. Dear Uncle Jack is so very serious! Sometimes he is so serious that I think he cannot be quite well.