Are your 9th graders really understanding Shakespeare's language--in a way that will make future plays easier and more enjoyable to read/watch, or are they just getting the gist of what's going on? This passage identification and vocabulary test is designed to encourage close reading of the text.

Test on Shakespeare’s The Tempest

(originally created for a 9^th grade English class to encourage close reading)

Short Answer Vocabulary: Answer all questions in full sentences. Be sure to demonstrate your understanding of the italicized words. (40 points)

1. Cite one example of perfidy in the play.

2. Name two characters who feel enmity toward one another.

3. The characters in this play fall into several social classes. Name one who is a member of the rabble.

4. What is the literal, or root, meaning of extirpate?

5. Which word doesn't belong and why?--wantonness, abstemiousness, distemper, and ardor

6. Is a habit more likely to be inveterate or unwonted? Defend your answer.

7. What is a bootless injunction?

8. Would you rather be called sanctimonious or peerless?

9. Name and describe briefly one character who is a paragon.

10. Which character besides Prospero abjures his powers?

Passage Analysis: Analyze fully three of the four passages that follow. Your discussion should include answers to the questions after each passage. (60 points)

a) O, wonder !

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world

That has such people in't!

Who says it? At what point in the play? What do these lines reveal about the speaker? the resolution of the play?

b) In one voyage

Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis,

And Ferdinand her brother found a wife

Where he himself was lost; Prospero his dukedom

In a poor isle; and all of us ourselves

When no man was his own. (italics added)

How are these lines, spoken by Gonzalo, a fitting summary of the action that has transpired during the play? Be sure to comment on the italicized phrases and the paradox that finding one's (true) self arises out of loss.

c) A devil, a born devil, on whose nature

Nurture can never stick! on whom my pains,

Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost! (italics added)

Who says it? About whom? Explain the italicized portion. What is the thematic importance of these lines?

d) All things in common nature should produce

Without sweat or endeavor. Treason, felony,

Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine

Would I not have; but nature should bring forth,

Of its own kind, all foison [plenty], all abunance,

To feed my innocent people.

Who says it? How are these lines an example of dramatic irony (foreshadowing of events that the speaker is not aware of at the time)? What is the speaker's attitude toward "nature"?