CLEP Humanities : Answering Other Questions About Drama

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for CLEP Humanities

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Example Questions

Example Question #183 : Literature

The musical stage play My Fair Lady is based on what earlier stage play?

Possible Answers:

The Iceman Cometh

Saint Joan

Death of a Salesman

Mourning Becomes Elektra

Pygmalion

Correct answer:

Pygmalion

Explanation:

My Fair Lady, by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, is entirely based on the George Bernard Shaw play Pygmalion. The characters and story, featuring a flower girl taught to be a lady who speaks properly, are almost exactly the same in each play. The musical simply adds songs, and crucially changes the ending to a happier one that features the two main characters staying together.

Example Question #1 : Answering Other Questions About Classical Drama

All of the following are classical Greek playwrights EXCEPT _________________.

Possible Answers:

Sophocles

Euripedes

Aristotle

Aeschylus

Aristophanes

Correct answer:

Aristotle

Explanation:

Aristotle was a Greek scientist and philosopher. Sophocles is most famous for his three Theban plays. Aeschylus wrote The Oresteia trilogy. Aristophanes wrote comedies and Euripedes wrote dramas in Athens.

Example Question #1 : Answering Other Questions About Drama

All of the following writers were from the Elizabethan Era in England except __________.

Possible Answers:

Christopher Marlowe

John Milton

William Shakespeare

Ben Johnson

Edmund Spenser

Correct answer:

John Milton

Explanation:

The "Elizabethan Era" refers to England under the reign of Elizabeth I, who ruled from 1558 to 1603. Literature first flowered in England under Elizabeth, and saw the rise of playwrights like Christopher Marlowe and Ben Johnson, poets like Edmund Spenser, and William Shakespeare, who wrote both plays and poems. John Milton, author of Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, wrote during the period of the English Civil War and the Commonwealth, nearly a half decade after Elizabeth's death.

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