All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Contexts Of American Plays Before 1925
Act One, Scene One
A section of country highway. The road runs diagonally from the left, forward, to the right, rear, and can be seen in the distance winding toward the horizon like a pale ribbon between the low, rolling hills with their freshly plowed fields clearly divided from each other, checkerboard fashion, by the lines of stone walls and rough snake fences.
… At the rise of the curtain, ROBERT MAYO is discovered sitting on the fence. He is a tall, slender young man of twenty-three. There is a touch of the poet about him expressed in his high forehead and wide, dark eyes. His features are delicate and refined, leaning to weakness in the mouth and chin. He is dressed in gray corduroy trousers pushed into high-laced boots, and a blue flannel shirt with a bright colored tie. He is reading a book by the fading sunset light. He shuts this, keeping a finger in to mark the place, and turns his head toward the horizon, gazing out over the fields and hills. His lips move as if he were reciting something to himself.
His brother ANDREW comes along the road from the right, returning from his work in the fields. He is twenty-seven years old, an opposite type to ROBERT: husky, sun-bronzed, hand some in a large-featured, manly fashion a son of the soil, intelligent in a shrewd way, but with nothing of the intellectual about him. He wears overalls, leather boots, a gray flannel shirt open at the neck, and a soft, mud-stained hat pushed back on his head. He stops to talk to ROBERT, leaning on the hoe he carries.
During what decade did this play premiere and win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama?
1920s
1890s
1900s
1910s
1930s
1920s
The play debuted on Broadway in 1920 and won the Pulitzer the same year. It has been revived several times since.
Passage adapted from Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon, I.i (1920; 1921 ed.)
Example Question #1 : Contexts Of American Plays Before 1925
Act One, Scene One
A section of country highway. The road runs diagonally from the left, forward, to the right, rear, and can be seen in the distance winding toward the horizon like a pale ribbon between the low, rolling hills with their freshly plowed fields clearly divided from each other, checkerboard fashion, by the lines of stone walls and rough snake fences.
… At the rise of the curtain, ROBERT MAYO is discovered sitting on the fence. He is a tall, slender young man of twenty-three. There is a touch of the poet about him expressed in his high forehead and wide, dark eyes. His features are delicate and refined, leaning to weakness in the mouth and chin. He is dressed in gray corduroy trousers pushed into high-laced boots, and a blue flannel shirt with a bright colored tie. He is reading a book by the fading sunset light. He shuts this, keeping a finger in to mark the place, and turns his head toward the horizon, gazing out over the fields and hills. His lips move as if he were reciting something to himself.
His brother ANDREW comes along the road from the right, returning from his work in the fields. He is twenty-seven years old, an opposite type to ROBERT: husky, sun-bronzed, hand some in a large-featured, manly fashion a son of the soil, intelligent in a shrewd way, but with nothing of the intellectual about him. He wears overalls, leather boots, a gray flannel shirt open at the neck, and a soft, mud-stained hat pushed back on his head. He stops to talk to ROBERT, leaning on the hoe he carries.
This playwright also wrote all but which of the following works?
Long Day’s Journey Into Night
The Seagull
A Moon for the Misbegotten
All God's Chillun Got Wings
Ah, Wilderness!
The Seagull
The Seagull is an 1896 play by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov. All of the rest of the plays were written by Eugene O’Neill. (Ah, Wildnerness! is one of his few comedies, while Long Day’s Journey Into Night is his most famous work.)
Passage adapted from Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon, I.i (1920; 1921 ed.)
Example Question #1 : Contexts Of American Plays Before 1925
Act One, Scene One
A section of country highway. The road runs diagonally from the left, forward, to the right, rear, and can be seen in the distance winding toward the horizon like a pale ribbon between the low, rolling hills with their freshly plowed fields clearly divided from each other, checkerboard fashion, by the lines of stone walls and rough snake fences.
. . . At the rise of the curtain, ROBERT MAYO is discovered sitting on the fence. He is a tall, slender young man of twenty-three. There is a touch of the poet about him expressed in his high forehead and wide, dark eyes. His features are delicate and refined, leaning to weakness in the mouth and chin. He is dressed in gray corduroy trousers pushed into high-laced boots, and a blue flannel shirt with a bright colored tie. He is reading a book by the fading sunset light. He shuts this, keeping a finger in to mark the place, and turns his head toward the horizon, gazing out over the fields and hills. His lips move as if he were reciting something to himself.
His brother ANDREW comes along the road from the right, returning from his work in the fields. He is twenty-seven years old, an opposite type to ROBERT: husky, sun-bronzed, hand some in a large-featured, manly fashion a son of the soil, intelligent in a shrewd way, but with nothing of the intellectual about him. He wears overalls, leather boots, a gray flannel shirt open at the neck, and a soft, mud-stained hat pushed back on his head. He stops to talk to ROBERT, leaning on the hoe he carries.
Who is the author of this play?
Eugene O’Neill
Leonard Bernstein
Arthur Miller
George Gershwin
Tennessee Williams
Eugene O’Neill
These are the opening stage directions for Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon. It is the playwright’s first full-length play.
Passage adapted from Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon, I.i (1920; 1921 ed.)
Example Question #1 : Contexts Of American Plays Before 1925
Who is the author of A Punch for Judy?
Maxwell Anderson
Eugene O’Neill
Dorothy Heyward
Elmer Rice
Philip Barry
Philip Barry
A Punch for Judy (1920) is one of American playwright Philip Barry’s earliest works.
Example Question #1 : Contexts Of American Plays Before 1925
During what decade was A Punch for Judy first performed?
1860s
1920s
1940s
1880s
1900s
1920s
This play premiered in 1920, when Broadway shows were just beginning to develop into a recognizable form.
Example Question #1 : Contexts Of American Plays Before 1925
What other famous American play did the author of A Punch for Judy write?
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
All My Sons
The Philadelphia Story
The Iceman Cometh
Les Blancs
The Philadelphia Story
Philip Barry is best known for his plays Holiday (1928) and The Philadelphia Story (1939), both of which later became films starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) is by Tennessee Williams, All My Sons (1947) is by Arthur Miller, The Iceman Cometh (1946) is by Eugene O’Neill, and Les Blancs (1970) is by Lorraine Hansberry.
Example Question #2 : Contexts Of American Plays Before 1925
The play title A Punch for Judy alludes to what earlier genre of plays?
British puppet shows
medieval miracle plays
medieval morality plays
Greek satyr plays
French farces
British puppet shows
A Punch for Judy (1920) is named after the violent, comedic Punch and Judy plays, which became popular in England in the 1600s and were derived from earlier Italian comedic forms. These plays continued to be popular in Britain through Victorian times and into the 20th century, particularly in seaside holiday towns.
Example Question #1 : Contexts Of American Plays
Act One, Scene One
A section of country highway. The road runs diagonally from the left, forward, to the right, rear, and can be seen in the distance winding toward the horizon like a pale ribbon between the low, rolling hills with their freshly plowed fields clearly divided from each other, checkerboard fashion, by the lines of stone walls and rough snake fences.
… At the rise of the curtain, ROBERT MAYO is discovered sitting on the fence. He is a tall, slender young man of twenty-three. There is a touch of the poet about him expressed in his high forehead and wide, dark eyes. His features are delicate and refined, leaning to weakness in the mouth and chin. He is dressed in gray corduroy trousers pushed into high-laced boots, and a blue flannel shirt with a bright colored tie. He is reading a book by the fading sunset light. He shuts this, keeping a finger in to mark the place, and turns his head toward the horizon, gazing out over the fields and hills. His lips move as if he were reciting something to himself.
His brother ANDREW comes along the road from the right, returning from his work in the fields. He is twenty-seven years old, an opposite type to ROBERT: husky, sun-bronzed, hand some in a large-featured, manly fashion a son of the soil, intelligent in a shrewd way, but with nothing of the intellectual about him. He wears overalls, leather boots, a gray flannel shirt open at the neck, and a soft, mud-stained hat pushed back on his head. He stops to talk to ROBERT, leaning on the hoe he carries.
Which of the following is not a character in this play?
Vanya
Kate Mayo
James Mayo
Captain Dick Scott
Ruth Atkins
Vanya
James Mayo, Kate Mayo, Captain Dick Scott, and Ruth Atkins are all central characters in Beyond the Horizon. Even if you weren’t familiar with the cast of this play, you could have recognized that Vanya is the protagonist of Anton Chekhov’s 1897 play Uncle Vanya.
Passage adapted from Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon, I.i (1920; 1921 ed.)
Example Question #1 : Contexts Of American Plays After 1925
Who wrote A Streetcar Named Desire?
Arthur Miller
Tony Kushner
Tennessee Williams
Edward Albee
Eugene O’Neill
Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire is one of Tennessee Williams’ most famous plays.
Example Question #1 : Contexts Of American Plays After 1925
During what decade was A Streetcar Named Desire first performed?
1970s
1950s
1940s
1980s
1960s
1940s
The play was first performed in 1947 on Broadway, and it received the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
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All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
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