Dr. Prinsky
Humn. 2001
Test on Geoffrey Chaucer in General, the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, and History of the English Language
1. As pointed out by McGalliard in NAWM, Chaucer composed the Canterbury Tales mainly in the: (a) 1290's (b) 1340's (c) 1390's (d) 1440's
2. As pointed out in class lecture, Prinsky’s Notes and Questions, and by McGalliard (NAWM), Chaucer's Canterbury Tales were written in the language of: (a) Latin (b) Old English (c) Middle English (d) Modern English
3. English is a first cousin of: (a) Hebrew (b) Latin (c) German (d) French (e) Spanish (f) Korean
4. The native language of England was: (a) Greek (b) Latin (c) Icelandic (d) Celtic (e) English
5. The period of Old English (formerly referred to as Anglo-Saxon) was: (a) 100-400 C.E. (b) 450-1100 C.E. (c) 1100-1450 C.E. (d) 1450-2000 C.E.
6. Any reader familiar with the history of the English language, who encountered the phrase “ye olde coffee shoppe,” would know that the phrase was: (a) Old English (b) Middle English (c) Victorian English (d) Modern English
7. From 1100 to 1450 C.E. the official language of England (widespread, orally as well as in writing, among the upper classes and those wishing for political and economic advancement) — comparable to the movement for making English the official language of the USA — was: (a) Latin (b) German (c) French (d) English (e) Celtic
8. The number of tales Chaucer planned for the Canterbury Tales was partly in competition with which author: (a) Homer (b) Vergil (c) Petronius (d) Boccaccio (e) Petrarch
9. The number of tales Chaucer actually completed for the Canterbury Tales was: (a) 23 (b) 43 (c) 63 (d) 83 (e) 103
10. As pointed out by McGalliard in NAWM, Chaucer believed in all of the following except which one? (a) religious orthodoxy (b) economic equality (c) social hierarchy (d) intrinsic not inherited nobility
11. For both McGalliard in NAWM and other critics and scholars, the most natural comparison and contrast is of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales to the principal work of which one of the following great authors: (a) Aristophanes (b) Vergil (c) Dante (d) Marie de France
12. As pointed out by D.J. Grout in his standard History of Music (and noted in Prinsky’s Notes and Questions on Dante’s Divine Comedy), the musical form in Chaucer’s era which the Canterbury Tales most resembles is: (a) motet (b) plainsong (c) organum (d) tenso (e) sirventes
13. The primary poetic form used by Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales is: (a) couplets (b) tercets (b) quatrains (d) ottava rima (e) sonnets
14. One distinctive medieval aspect of the "array" of most of the men, as described in the General Prologue, is their: (a) knives or daggers (b) bellbottom trousers (c) coarse knit shirts (d) three-cornered caps (e) tippets
15. The recurrent references in the General Prologue to music consistently associate music with: (a) Plato (b) piety (c) the Mass (d) immorality
16. Of the clergy among the pilgrims in the General Prologue, the only one not really satirized, but, to the contrary, truly praised, is the: (a) Prioress (Nun) (b) Monk (Abbot) (c) Friar (d) Parson (e) Summoner (f) Pardoner
17. Collectively, the Haberdasher, Carpenter, Weaver, Dyer, Tapestry Maker -- with their Cook -- and the Wife of Bath, all suggest about the high or late Middle Ages: (a) changing socioeconomics, in the rise of the middle class (b) the reasons for various peasant revolts (c) the endurance of the fixed status quo of the feudal system (d) flight from the cities into the suburbs
18. The overall arrangement of the descriptions of the Canterbury Pilgrims, as well as their tales, helps to convey the concept or value of: (a) meritocracy (b) anarchy (c) plutocracy (d) hierarchy
19. The General Prologue initiates one of the most famous examples in literature of the: (a) frame structure (b) peripety or peripeteia (c) Freytag pyramid (d) rondeau form
20. A striking stylistic device used in the opening fourteen lines of the General Prologue is: (a) balanced antithesis (b) chiasmus (c) periodic sentence (d) asyndeton
21. The stylistic device referred to in the immediately preceding question helps suggest that the pilgrims are strongly motivated by: (a) religious piety (b) spring fever (c) fears of illness (d) economic competitiveness
22. The imagery in the opening fourteen lines of the General Prologue most closely connects to the “array” and behavior of which one of the pilgrims: (a) the Knight (b) the Squire (c) the Yeoman (d)the Nun (e) the Monk
23. Chaucer’s description of the Knight as “in the King’s campaigns . . . / . . . had gripped his [the Knight’s] horse’s reins” (lines 45-46) exemplifies the figure of speech: (a) hyperbole (b) metaphor (c) personification (d) synecdoche (e) understatement
24. The figure of speech referred to in the immediately preceding question helps convey all of the following except which one: (a) strenuous effort (b) earnestness (c) possessiveness (d) perseverance (e) commitment
25. As suggested by his "array" in the General Prologue, the Squire has all the following traits except which one: (a) the vitality of Nature (b) close resemblance to his father (c) amorous passion (d) vanity
26. One detail that links the Yeoman, Nun, and Monk -- with overtones or symbolism comparing and contrasting their religious values -- is: (a) jewelry (b) diet (c) weaponry (d) footwear
27. The Nun’s overemphasis on materialism is conveyed by the imagery or explicit reference to all of the following except which one: (a) food (b) physique (c) jewelry (d) money
28. Chaucer-the-character’s agreement with the Monk about the Monk’s interpretation of the Bible and monastic rules shows what about Chaucer-the-character: (a) shrewdness (b) pessimism (c) naivete (d) erudition
29. The symbolism of the Friar's small gifts, in accord with the recipients and also his facilitation of marriages, is appropriately: (a) seraphic (b) altruistic (c) stoic (d) phallic
30. In the General Prologue, with regard to the amount and nature of his speech, the Oxford Student (as pointed out in class) is an ironic comparison-contrast to: (a) the Knight (b) the Merchant (c) the Franklin (d) the Parson
31. One joke suggested about the Lawyer is that he: (a) knows no law (b) draws up contracts easy to break (c) seriously overdresses (d) overbills for his time
32. If the Franklin were to be assigned to Dante’s Inferno, he would probably be assigned to the circle assigned to: (a) illicit sexual desire (b) gluttony (c) heretical disbelief in resurrection (d) fraud
33. The joke about the Cook for the five Guildsmen is that he resembles a modern-day: (a) Julia Childs on PBS (b) Iron Chef on Japanese TV (c) Emeril Live! (d) Barf on You Can't Do That on Television
34. The way the Skipper wears his dagger is most like the way the following wears his weapon: (a) Samurai in old Japan (b) Hero of a Sword-and-Sorcery movie (e.g., the Conan and Beastmaster movies, Xena in the TV series Xena Warrior Princess, Kar Dargo on Farscape) (c) Gunslinger of the Old West (d) Knight in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail
35. In the General Prologue, distinctive medieval touches in the description of the Physician have to do with his use of: (a) knowledge of ancient Egyptian medicine (b) surgical instruments (c) astrology and gold (d) saints' holy relics
36. The distinctive medieval touches referred to in the immediately preceding question convey an additional joke about: (a) professional greed (b) useless erudition (c) immoral black magic (d) callous indifference to patients' suffering (e) valuing Christian faith over scientific knowledge
37. In the General Prologue, the kerchiefs worn by the woman (Wife) of Bath on Sunday suggest all of the following except which one: (a) the new importance of the cloth trade in England (b) the woman's vanity (c) the woman's physical strength or hardiness (d) the woman's piety (e) the woman's middle-class affluence
38. In the General Prologue, Chaucer's description of the Miller's face shows Chaucer's closest affinity to: (a) Greek art (b) Medieval music (c) Medieval art (d) Renaissance art
39. The musical instrument that the Miller plays, as suggested by the Miller’s riding position among the pilgrims (as well as the introduction to the Miller’s Tale) is in accord (in more than one sense) with what facet of the Miller’s personality and behavior: (a) sweet, harmonious nature (b) quiet humility (c) assertive blowhard nature (d) grasping manipulativeness
40. In the General Prologue, the main irony about the Manciple of the lawyer's college is that though he does not have the extensive formal education of the lawyers, he: (a) has worked his way up to being their president or boss (b) has successfully sued the lawyers (c) is cleverer and more devious at misusing documents than they are (d) is more attractive to the opposite sex than they are
41. In the General Prologue, where the Reeve rides, in relation to the other Canterbury Pilgrims, suggests his: (a) suspiciousness (b) forwardness (c) sociability (d) competitiveness
42. Certain imagery describing the lasciviousness of the Summoner (whatever lasciviousness is) links him, both in the imagery and what it symbolizes, with the: (a) Squire (b) Monk (c) Franklin (d) Plowman
43. The decoration on the Pardoner's hat symbolically suggests the Pardoner's involvement, too often for profane commerce rather than for religious devotion, in: (a) Bibles (b) church organs (c) prayer books (d) holy relics (e) choir robes
44. As indicated in the General Prologue itself, Chaucer planned to write how many tales: (a) 40 (b) 80 (c) 120 (d) 160
45. A popular musical artist who parallels and alludes to the content, tone, and form of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in one of his or her CD's (including the title of the CD, not only alluding to a Canterbury Tale but also punning on his own real name) is: (a) Prince (b) Sting (c) Fabian (d) Enya (e) Abba (f) Jethro Tull (g) Stone Temple Pilots
46. Two important twentieth-century authors who wrote plays about the martyr who made the Canterbury cathedral so important and an important pilgrimage site of the Middle Ages (with one of these plays being turned into a movie nominated for twelve academy awards) were: (a) Yvan (or Ivan) Goll and W.H. Auden (b) Luigi Pirandello and Robert Frost (c) Jean Anouilh and T.S. Eliot (d) Carl Capek and Wendy Wasserstein