Canterbury Tales
Multiple Choice
Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.
____ 1. In “the Prologue”, Chaucer uses the pilgrimage primarily as a device to
____ 2. In “the Prologue”, the narrator is portrayed as
____ 3. In “the Prologue”, the narrator says he plans to "give account of all their words and dealings, / Using their very phrases as they fell." For which kind of characterization would an author provide such details?
____ 4. Using the who, what, where, when, why, and how questioning strategy, write the letter of the phrase that best summarizes the meaning of the following passage from “the Prologue”.
He was an easy man in penance-giving / Where he could hope to make a decent
living; / It's a sure sign whenever gifts are given / To a poor Order that a man's well
shriven, / And should he give enough he knew in verity / The penitent repented in
sincerity.
____ 5. What can the reader infer about the Friar from these lines from “the Prologue”?
But anywhere a profit might accrue / Courteous he was and lowly of service too.
____ 6. In “the Prologue”, whom do the pilgrims agree to set up as judge over themselves?
____ 7. What do the following lines from “the Prologue” suggest about the woman from Bath?
In all the parish not a dame dared stir / Towards the altar steps in front of her
____ 8. Using the who, what, where, when, why, and how questioning strategy to understand the following passage from “the Prologue”, write the letter of the phrase that best summarizes its meaning.
Whatever money from his friends he took / He spent on learning or another book /
And prayed for them most earnestly, returning / Thanks to them thus for paying
for his learning.
____ 9. What theme does Chaucer convey in "The Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales?
____ 12. In “the Prologue”, according to the Host's plan, each pilgrim would tell
____ 13. In “the Prologue”, the Prioress was distinguished, among other things, by the fact that she
____ 14. The youngest pilgrim in “the Prologue”, one who slept very little at night, was the
____ 15. In “the Prologue”, the member of the clergy given the most admiring, flattering description is the
____ 16. In “the Prologue”, the pilgrim who did a brisk business in fake holy relics was the
____ 17. At the beginning “The Pardoner's Tale”, we find three "rioters" sitting
____ 18. In “The Pardoner's Tale”, when the three hear about the plague, they swear that they will
____ 19. In “The Pardoner's Tale”, the trio follows the old man's advice and find, as he directed,
____ 20. In “The Pardoner's Tale”, the three young men decide to
____ 21. In “The Pardoner's Tale”, as soon as the youngest leaves for town, the other two
____ 22. In “The Pardoner's Tale”, the rioter who goes to town decides that he will
____ 23. In “The Pardoner's Tale”, when the youngest man returns, his partners
____ 24. In an ironic and just conclusion to “the Pardoner's Tale”,
____ 25. In “The Pardoner's Tale”, it is fitting that the Pardoner relate this grim tale because he, of all the pilgrims,
____ 26. Chaucer possessed a firm understanding of the life of his times and of human nature, in part because he was all of the following except
____ 27. Chaucer served as all of the following except
____ 28. In Chaucer's day, members of all classes went on pilgrimages for all of the following reasons except to
____ 29. Chaucer read and was influenced by all of the following except
____ 30. His choice of a pilgrimage to Canterbury as a frame for his most ambitious work permitted something unusual. What?
____ 31. The Canterbury Tales is all of the following except
Critical Reading Identify the letter of the choice that best answers the question.
____ 32. What is Chaucer’s main reason for writing about the pilgrimage in
the Prologue?
____ 33. Use the strategy for analyzing difficult sentences to analyze the following lines
from the Prologue. What was the purpose of the trip?
It happened in that season that one day / In Southwark, at The Tabard, as I lay /
Ready to go on pilgrimage and start / For Canterbury, most devout at heart, / At
night there came into that hostelry / Some nine and twenty in a company / Of
sundry folk happening then to fall / In fellowship, and they were pilgrims all / That
towards Canterbury meant to ride.
____ 34. In the Prologue, what does the narrator think of the Monk?
____ 35. Which of these quotations from the Prologue is an example of direct
characterization?
____ 36. What does the narrator mean in saying these lines from the Prologue?
But first I beg of you, in courtesy, / Not to condemn me as unmannerly / If I speak
plainly and with no concealing / And give account of all their words and dealings.
____ 37. Whom do the pilgrims accept as their leader in the Prologue?
____ 38. What can you infer from these words of the Pardoner in “The Pardoner’s Tale”?
For my exclusive purpose is to win / And not at all to castigate their sin. / Once dead what matter how their souls may fare? / They can go blackberrying, for all I care!
____ 39. What is the allegory that the Pardoner teaches in “The Pardoner’s Tale”?
____ 40. What do you learn about “The Pardoner’s Tale” by rereading these lines?
And then Death went his way without a word. / He’s killed a thousand in the present plague, / And, sir, it doesn’t do to be too vague / If you should meet him; you had best be wary.
____ 41. Which words best describe the three rioters in “The Pardoner’s Tale”?
____ 42. Reread these lines that are spoken by the old man in “The Pardoner’s Tale.” What does he mean?
About the earth, which is my mother’s gate, / Knock-knocking with my staff from night to noon / And crying, ‘Mother, open to me soon! / Look at me, mother, won’t you let me in?’
____ 43. Why does the old man send the three rioters to the tree in “The Pardoner’s Tale”?
ddd
____ 44. What is one characteristic of an allegory that is found in “The Pardoner’s Tale”?
____ 45. In “The Pardoner’s Tale,” what do the two rioters decide to do after they have sent their friend for food and wine?
____ 46. What does the young rioter decide while on his way into town for food and wine in “The Pardoner’s Tale”?
____ 47. Who is the old man in “The Pardoner’s Tale”?
____ 48. In “The Pardoner’s Tale,” which character or characters does the Pardoner most closely resemble?
____ 49. Which character trait leads to the downfall of the three rioters in “The Pardoner’s Tale”?
____ 50. According to “The Wife of Bath's Tale,” why was the knight condemned to die?
____ 52. What is the main setting of the story about the knight in “The Wife of Bath's Tale”?
____ 53. According to “The Wife of Bath's Tale,” in the story of Midas, his wife tells her secret to the water. What is the point of this story?
____ 54. In “The Wife of Bath's Tale,” the knight decides to return to the queen and meet his fate even before he meets the old woman. Why?
____ 55. According to “The Wife of Bath's Tale,” why does the knight agree to marry the old woman?
____ 56. In “The Wife of Bath's Tale,” the old woman insists the knight marry her as her reward. What does the word misalliance mean in his reply?
“My love?” said he. “By Heaven, my damnation! / Alas that any of my race and station / Should ever make so foul a misalliance!” / Yet in the end his pleading and defiance / All went for nothing, he was forced to wed.
____ 57. According to “The Wife of Bath's Tale,” near the end of the story, the knight correctly answers the queen's question. Why does the old woman suddenly leap up and claim her reward in front of the queen?
____ 58. In “The Wife of Bath's Tale,” after the knight and the old woman are married, the old woman gives him two choices. What are they?
____ 59. What is the moral of “The Wife of Bath's Tale”?
____ 62. What is the Wife of Bath's opinion of holy friars, according to “The Wife of Bath's Tale”?
____ 63. What question does the old woman ask the knight after they are married in “The Wife of Bath's Tale”?
____
____ 65. He has been in many battles. He was true and gentle.
____ 66.
He was the son of the Knight, in his twenties, agile, strong, and happy-go-lucky.
____ 67. He was the Squire's servant. He was a woodsman, a Robin Hood type character.
____ 70. This pilgrim was a master of the trade, had a sore on one knee, and was physically a rather disgusting character.