The Bet by Anton Chekhov

What is the main topic discussed at the dinner party?

• Student debt

• The value of knowledge and experience

• Capital punishment vs. life in prison

• Treat others as you want to be treated

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CCSS.RI. 9-10.2

CCSS.RI.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.8.2

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

What is one way the banker change from the beginning of the story to the end?

• He is very wealthy in the beginning, then he has lost his fortune by the end.

• His time in isolation has made him lose his mind.

• He lost a lot of weight

• He has become much wiser from all of his reading.

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CCSS.RL.11-12.7

CCSS.RL.6.3

CCSS.RL.7.3

CCSS.RL.8.3

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

What is one way the lawyer has changed from the beginning of the story to the end?

• He has lost his wealth.

• He has learned how to do complex math equations.

• He does not change in the story.

• He no longer values money, or winning the bet.

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CCSS.RL.11-12.7

CCSS.RL.6.3

CCSS.RL.7.3

CCSS.RL.8.3

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

How does the lawyer provoke the banker’s decision to place the bet?

• The lawyer questions whether or not the banker has the money to make a worthwhile bet with him.

• The lawyer suggests that the banker doesn’t have the courage to place such a risky bet against him.

• The lawyer offers to give the banker two million if he cannot stay in solitary confinement for the agreed upon years.

• The lawyer proposes that he will remain in solitary confinement even longer than the banker suggests.

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CCSS.RI.1.1

CCSS.RI.2.1

CCSS.RI.3.1

CCSS.RL.2.1

CCSS.RL.3.1

Why did the lawyer reject the money and leave a few hours shy of winning the bet and receiving the two million dollars?

• He read and studied so much that he discovered that the bet was meaningless and the money has no true value.

• He was really hungry.

• He lost his mind and just had to get out.

• He lost track of the days and actually thought he had won.

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CCSS.RI.8.1

CCSS.RI.8.8

CCSS.RL.11-12.1

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.1

What does obsolete mean based off the passage:

The guests, among them not a few scholars and journalists, for the most part disapproved of capital punishment. They found it obsolete as a means of punishment, unfitted to a Christian State and immoral. Some of them thought that capital punishment should be replaced universally by life-imprisonment.

• acceptable

• morally correct

• no longer produced or used; out of date.

• justifiable

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CCSS.RI.8.4

CCSS.RI.9-10.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

What is the outcome of “The Bet”?

• The Lawyer takes the money and lives a happy life

• The Banker kills the Lawyer

• The Lawyer has a heart attack and dies in confinement

• The Lawyer leaves before his time is up and rejects the money

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CCSS.RL.2.10

CCSS.RL.2.2

CCSS.RL.2.3

CCSS.RL.4.3

CCSS.RL.4.4

How does the lawyer’s 15-year imprisonment affect the banker?

• The banker wishes that he had required the lawyer to stay imprisoned for longer.

• The banker comes to realize that he was wrong about his stance on life imprisonment.

• The banker mourns the life and experiences that he has deprived the lawyer of.

• The banker regrets placing the bet and thinks it was a stupid idea in the first place.

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CCSS.RL.11-12.7

CCSS.RL.6.3

CCSS.RL.7.3

CCSS.RL.8.3

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

Which statement best expresses a theme in the story?

• Pursuing knowledge and bettering yourself is the best way to spend your time.

• The desire to prove to others that you’re right can lead to extreme actions.

• Greed and impulsive decisions can lead to huge consequences.

• There is nothing worse than depriving someone of human contact.

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CCSS.RI. 9-10.9

CCSS.RI.11-12.9

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.8.2

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

Which statement best describes how the banker’s actions develop the theme of the story?

• The banker’s hasty and thoughtless actions lead to trouble and despair for him.

• The banker’s disregard for human life shows the extent of his lack of compassion for others.

• The banker’s adventurous spirit prompts him to create dangerous or risky situations.

• The banker’s passionate defense of his views gets him into dangerous situations.

Tags

CCSS.RI. 9-10.9

CCSS.RL.6.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

CCSS.RL.8.2

CCSS.RL.9-10.2