The Pardoner's Tale Quiz

True or False: All the tales narrated by the various pilgrims are the inner frame stories.

• True

• False

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True or False: The pilgrims' discussions as they journey to Canterbury occur in the inner frame stories.

• True

• False

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In “The Pardoner’s Tale” the three rioters are sure that they can destroy Death, and yet they fail to see that they are falling into his trap. This is an example of

• irony

• heroism

• hedonism

• flattery

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CCSS.RL.11-12.6

What is ironic about the pledge the rioters make in these lines of “The Pardoner’s Tale”?

They made their bargain, swore with appetite. / These three, to live and die for one another / As brother-born might swear to his born brother.

• They really are brothers but have forgotten.

• They have only just met.

• They do not realize that Death is listening.

• They later plot to kill one another to get a larger share of the gold.

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What becomes clearer when rereading the following passage from “The Pardoner’s Tale”?

. . . if it be your design / To find out Death, turn up this crooked way / Towards that grove, I left him there today / Under a tree, and there you'll find him waiting.

• There is a hooded figure near the grove awaiting the three rioters

• The plague will get the three rioters because there is a graveyard near the grove.

• The man is directing the three rioters toward their own deaths.

• The three rioters will be victorious over Death because they are not afraid of him.

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What is one characteristic of an allegory that is found in “The Pardoner’s Tale”?

• a story that occurs within the story

• rhyming of every two lines

• a tale that is told as a long prose poem

• the use of characters to stand for ideas

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?’

• He wants to find his mother.

• He is tired of wandering.

• He wants to die.

• He wants a place to live.

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Which character trait leads to the downfall of the three rioters in “The Pardoner’s Tale”?

• innocence

• greed

• jealousy

• pride

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CCSS.W.11-12.9

The publican says, “This very year he killed, in a large village a mile away, man, woman, serf and tillage.” Reread these lines that precede the publican’s remark, and then decide what most likely happened in the village.

• Thieves robbed the village and killed the inhabitants.

• A strong wind blew through the village, killing everyone there.

• Everyone in the village died with a spear in his or her heart.

• Plague claimed the lives of the people in the village.

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The moral of “The Pardoner’s Tale” is

• Friends should never be trusted.

• Greed is the source of evil.

• A promise is a promise.

• Old men are unreliable.

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