Tag: reading comprehension

Prentice: My wife is talking of my secretary sir. She's been missing for some time.

Geraldine: I'm Geraldine Barclay. Looking for part-time secretarial work. I've been certified insane.

Rance (to Mrs Prentice): Ignore these random reflections. They're an essential factor in the patient's condition. (to Dr Prentice) Does she have the same name as your secretary?

Prentice: She's taken my secretary's name as her "nom-de-folie". Although morally reprehensible, there's little we can do legally, I'm afraid.

Rance (drying his hands): It seems a trifle capricious but the insane are famous for their wild ways.

Mrs Prentice: I shall contact the employment agency. Miss Barclay can't have vanished into thin air.

She goes into the hall. Dr Prentice pours himself a drink.

Prentice: My wife is unfamiliar with the habits of young women, sir. I've known many who could vanish into thin air. And some who took a delight in doing so.

Dr Rance puts on a white coat.

Rance: In my experience, young women vanish only at midnight and after a heavy meal.

The passage above belongs to a

Read the passage and accordingly, fill in the blank:

Aegeon: Not know my voice! O time's extremity,
Not know my voice! O time's extremity,

Hast thou so crack'd and splitted my poor tongue
In seven short years, that here my only son
Knows not my feeble key of untuned cares?
Though now this grained face of mine be hid
In sap-consuming winter's drizzled snow,
And all the conduits of my blood froze up,
Yet hath my night of life some memory,
My wasting lamps some fading glimmer left,
My dull deaf ears a little use to hear:
All these old witnesses--I cannot err--
Tell me thou art my son Antipholus.

Antipholus of Ephesus: I never saw my father in my life.

Aegeon: But seven years since, in Syracusa, boy,
Thou know'st we parted: but perhaps, my son,
Thou shamest to acknowledge me in misery.

Antipholus of Ephesus: The duke and all that know me in the city
Can witness with me that it is not so
I ne'er saw Syracusa in my life.

Duke Solinus: I tell thee, Syracusian, twenty years
Have I been patron to Antipholus,
During which time he ne'er saw Syracusa:
I see thy age and dangers make thee dote.

Re-enter AEMILIA, with ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse and DROMIO of Syracuse

Aemilia: Most mighty duke, behold a man much wrong'd

All gather to see them

Adriana: I see two husbands, or mine eyes deceive me.

Duke Solinus: One of these men is Genius to the other;
And so of these. Which is the natural man,
And which the spirit? who deciphers them?

Dromio of Syracuse: I, sir, am Dromio; command him away.

Dromio of Ephesus: I, sir, am Dromio; pray, let me stay.

The passage above is an extract from a ___________.

State whether true or false.
Although a farce may appear only to be funny, they often contain deeper implications on account of the use of satirical elements. 

Enter BASSANIO, LORENZO, and GRATIANO

SALANIO

Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kinsman,
Gratiano and Lorenzo. Fare ye well:
We leave you now with better company.

SALARINO

I would have stay'd till I had made you merry,
If worthier friends had not prevented me.

What does the line 'Enter Bassanio, Lorenzo and Gratiano' indicate?

 

SCENE II: Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house.

Enter PORTIA and NERISSA

PORTIA

By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of
this great world.

NERISSA

You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in
the same abundance as your good fortunes are: and
yet, for aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit
with too much as they that starve with nothing. It
is no mean happiness therefore, to be seated in the
mean: superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but
competency lives longer.

What does the line 'Enter Portia and Nerissa' indicate?

 

Portia

I remember him well, and I remember him worthy of

thy praise.

Enter a Serving-man

How now! what news?

Servant

The four strangers seek for you, madam, to take
their leave: and there is a forerunner come from a
fifth, the Prince of Morocco, who brings word the
prince his master will be here to-night.

What does the line 'Enter a Serving-man' indicate?

 

ANTONIO

Thou know'st that all my fortunes are at sea;
Neither have I money nor commodity
To raise a present sum: therefore go forth;
Try what my credit can in Venice do:
That shall be rack'd, even to the uttermost,
To furnish thee to Belmont, to fair Portia.
Go, presently inquire, and so will I,
Where money is, and I no question make
To have it of my trust or for my sake.

 

Exeunt

What does 'Exeunt' indicate?

SCENE I. Venice. A street.

Enter ANTONIO, SALARINO, and SALANIO

ANTONIO

In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn;
And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.

What does the line 'Enter Antonio, Salarino and Salanio' indicate?

 

SCENE V. The same. Before SHYLOCK'S house.

Enter SHYLOCK and LAUNCELOT

SHYLOCK

Well, thou shalt see, thy eyes shall be thy judge,
The difference of old Shylock and Bassanio:--
What, Jessica!--thou shalt not gormandise,
As thou hast done with me:--What, Jessica!--
And sleep and snore, and rend apparel out;--
Why, Jessica, I say!

What does the line 'Enter Shylock and Launcelot' indicate?

ANTONIO

Hie thee, gentle Jew.

Exit Shylock

The Hebrew will turn Christian: he grows kind.

BASSANIO

I like not fair terms and a villain's mind.

What does the line 'Exit Shylock' indicate?