All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #31 : Identification Of Plays
What theatrical genre is characterized by its series of unrelated music, magic, comedy, dancing, and/or circus acts all on one playbill?
satire
talkies
burlesque
Broadway
vaudeville
vaudeville
The theatrical genre described in the question is vaudeville, a genre that developed in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America. It has its roots in a range of different disciplines, including stage magic, burlesque, circus sideshows, and musical theater.
Example Question #32 : Identification Of Plays
Who wrote Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Tony Kushner
Leonard Woolf
Tennessee Williams
Edward Albee
Tom Stoppard
Edward Albee
The author is Edward Albee, an award-winning American playwright who was born in 1928. The play follows the disintegration of the marriage of an impotent middle-aged couple and is remarkable for its interplay of reality and illusion.
Example Question #33 : Identification Of Plays
Which of the following is the title of an absurdist tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard?
Arcadia
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Waiting for Godot
Glengarry Glen Ross
Not I
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
The play described in the question stem is Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, which follows the offstage adventures of Hamlet’s two hapless friends. The conceit is that the eponymous characters are confused by the plot of Hamlet, which they aren’t privy to, and this conceit allows Stoppard to pose strong existential questions about human purpose and determinism.
Example Question #34 : Identification Of Plays
Glengarry Glen Ross was written by which American playwright?
Tony Kushner
Edward Albee
Tom Stoppard
Tennessee Williams
David Mamet
David Mamet
Glengarry Glen Ross was written by David Mamet and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984. It centers on the machinations of four unscrupulous real estate agents in Chicago who are trying their best to sell the two pieces of real estate in the play’s title. It is known for its exquisite dialogues and attention to language.
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