Romeo and Juliet - Form, structure and language test questions - Edexcel - GCSE English Literature Revision

1

Read the prologue from Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet and answer questions 1-5 below.

Prologue

Two households, both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows

Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.

The fearful passage of their death-marked love,

And the continuance of their parents' rage,

Which but their children's end could naught could remove,

Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;

The which, if you with patient ears attend,

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

What type of play is Romeo and Juliet?

Comedy

History

Tragedy

2

Why did Shakespeare begin his play with the prologue?

He didn't know how else to start it

He wanted to outline the conflict between the two families and Romeo and Juliet's death

Shakespeare began all of his plays with a prologue

3

'Death-marked love' is an example of what?

Symbolism

Onomatopoeia

Imagery

4

'A pair of star-crossed lovers'. What does Shakespeare's imagery show in this example?

That Romeo and Juliet are in space

Romeo and Juliet were never meant to be together

The universe is a large place

5

Why does Shakespeare address the audience in the prologue?

To gain their attention

So they know he wrote it

To allow the actors to do other things

6

Read the prologue from Act 2 of Romeo and Juliet. Answer questions 6-8 below.

Prologue

Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie,

And young affection gapes to be his heir;

That fair for which love groaned for and would die,

With tender Juliet matched is now not fair.

Now Romeo is beloved and loved again,

Alike bewitched by the charm of looks,

But to his foe he must complain,

And she steal love's sweet bait from fearful hooks.

Being held a foe, he may not have access

To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear,

And she as much in love, her means much less

To meet her beloved anywhere.

But passion lends them power, time means, to meet,

Tempering extremities with extreme sweet.

'...love groaned for' is an example of what?

Personification

Metaphor

Rhyme

7

Why has Shakespeare repeated the word 'foe'?

He couldn't think of anything else

He wanted to show Romeo and Juliet are sworn enemies

It was a common word in Elizabethan times

8

Which semantic fields are apparent in this prologue?

Love and hate

Love and family

Hate and family

9

Read the extract from the end of Romeo and Juliet and answer questions 9-10 below.

PRINCE

A glooming peace this morning with it brings.

The sun for sorrow will not show his head.

Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.

Some shall be pardoned and some shall be punished,

For never was a story of more woe

Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

'Glooming peace' is an oxymoron. What does it show?

That the peace between the two families is sorrowful

That the peace between the two families doesn't really exist

That it was a dark, dismal day

10

Why did Shakespeare end his play with a rhyming couplet?

Because it sounded nice

To show how Romeo and Juliet are together in the after-life

To show how Romeo and Juliet's love was doomed