Study Guide

Speech & Theater
Sample Questions

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Competency 0001
Understand elements of communication and the role of speech in public discourse.

1. A parent speaking to an adolescent son expresses concern that he is not devoting sufficient time to his studies because of his participation in various social activities. Which of the following responses by the adolescent most clearly indicates that empathic listening has occurred?

  1. "I realize I have been spending more time than usual with my friends lately, but I doubt this will have any significant effect on my studies."
  2. "I understand why you might be worried. In the future, I will make a conscious effort to strike a better balance between my school responsibilities and social life."
  3. "There is more to life than schoolwork. So long as I am able to maintain passing grades, I don't see any reason for you to worry."
  4. "I think the importance of homework is generally overrated. How much time a person devotes to it is no real indication of how well that person is doing in school."
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Correct Response: B. Empathic listening is a form of listening that reflects an awareness of another person's feelings and typically generates a response intended to improve mutual understanding and trust. Recognizing a speaker's concerns and promising to do something to address those concerns is a good example of empathic listening.

Competency 0002
Understand and apply oral, visual, and written language skills.

2. In which of the following statements is allusion used as a literary device in the communication process?

  1. "I will never forget what happened to Roger the night he accepted the challenge."
  2. "Nearly everyone anticipated George Washington's election as the first president of the United States."
  3. "Whatever you do, don't let yourself be deceived by outward appearances."
  4. "These and other selfless acts contributed to his reputation as a Good Samaritan."
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Correct Response: D. An allusion is a reference to a person, place, or event familiar to both speaker and listeners or readers that is used to help make a point without going into extended discourse. References to the Good Samaritan indicate to listeners or readers that a person is extremely sensitive to the needs of others, particularly needy strangers.

Competency 0003
Understand principles and characteristics of interpersonal and small-group communication.

3. Use the oral remark below to answer the question that follows.

"These are all good points, but we appear to be overestimating the influence of demographic factors and not paying sufficient attention to economic sources of the problem."

This oral remark best illustrates which of the following task roles in a small-group discussion?

  1. evaluator-critic
  2. elaborator
  3. information giver
  4. opinion seeker
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Correct Response: A. The major tasks of the evaluator-critic in a small-group discussion include assessing the conclusions reached by the group and recommending new lines of inquiry when necessary.

Competency 0004
Understand principles and characteristics of public speaking and debate.

4. Which of the following persuasive strategies most clearly indicates that a speaker has great confidence in an audience's willingness to respond objectively to an address?

  1. one that relies on vivid language to emphasize the significance of major points
  2. one based on drawing logical conclusions from factual information
  3. one that uses an ascending sequence to arrange ideas according to their relative importance
  4. one based on using telling examples to challenge listener assumptions
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Correct Response: B. Speakers who have great faith in an audience's objectivity should have little need to employ special persuasive appeals to make their case. If such an audience proves unresponsive to a strategy based on drawing logical conclusions from factual information, there is likely something wrong with the argument.

Competency 0005
Understand principles and characteristics of mass communication and media literacy.

5. Use the excerpt below from an Internet article to answer the question that follows.

William Faulkner had a much more profound understanding of human nature than F. Scott Fitzgerald because sophisticated readers invariably prefer Faulkner's treatment of such questions. One of the surest ways to assess the degree of literary sophistication that readers bring to a text is to ask whether they consider Faulkner's knowledge of human motivation superior to that of Fitzgerald.

The argument presented in the excerpt best illustrates which of the following fallacies?

  1. circular reasoning
  2. appealing to authority
  3. straw man
  4. hasty generalization
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Correct Response: A. Circular reasoning is a logical fallacy in which the conclusion is little more than a restatement of a basic premise of an argument (i.e., A and B are true because B and A are true). Circular reasoning is unable to prove a conclusion, because if there is any question about the conclusion's validity, the premise leading to it will appear equally questionable.

Competency 0006
Understand principles of acting.

6. Which of the following exercises would most likely be part of actor training that is based on the work of Jerzy Grotowski?

  1. isolating the movement of a body part while allowing it to trigger images and emotions
  2. standing face to face with a partner and performing a scene with minimal inflection
  3. closing the eyes and using guided imagery to envision the elements of a successful performance
  4. playing a game in which sounds and movements are rapidly passed around a circle
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Correct Response: A. Jerzy Grotowski sought to free actors from social masks and eliminate the distinction between impulse and physical expression. His "plastiques" exercises ask actors to explore the movement potential of a single joint of the body for up to an hour at a time. Throughout the exploration, actors are encouraged to incorporate any emotions they experience into the work.

Competency 0007
Understand principles of playwriting and directing.

7. During a rehearsal period, a director typically uses table work to accomplish which of the following goals?

  1. helping the actors learn their lines
  2. re-thinking casting choices based on performance
  3. developing the ground plan and blocking
  4. deepening the cast's understanding of the script
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Correct Response: D. The first days of a play's rehearsal period are frequently devoted to table work, in which the director explains the production concept; leads the cast in a read-through and study of the text; and facilitates a discussion of the play's ideas, themes, and character relationships. This helps the director ensure that the cast has a solid understanding of the script before beginning blocking rehearsals.

Competency 0008
Understand principles of design and technical theater.

8. When a lighting designer combines complementary hues of blue and yellow, the resulting light will be:

  1. white.
  2. orange.
  3. cyan.
  4. black.
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Correct Response: A. Complementary colors are any two colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. Complementary colors used in theatrical lighting create white light when they are combined in the right proportions. The complementary color pairings on the color model for lighting are red/cyan, magenta/green, and blue/yellow.

Competency 0009
Understand theater history and culture.

9. Which of the following events is credited with beginning the modern Chicano theater movement?

  1. the activism of the Raza Unida party during the 1970s
  2. the annexation of Texas into the United States
  3. the formation of El Teatro Campesino by Luis Valdez
  4. the premiere of Zoot Suit on Broadway
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Correct Response: C. In 1965, Luis Valdez organized farmworkers into El Teatro Campesino and began staging agitprop performances that dramatized their hardships and raised support for the grape boycott. This led to similar groups forming in communities and on college campuses across the country, ushering in a movement that would eventually make its way to the commercial stage.

Competency 0010
Understand the interdisciplinary nature of theater.

10. Physical theater forms such as clowning and mime share primarily which of the following traits with contemporary dance performance?

  1. an emphasis on the use of the body over spoken text
  2. a focus on providing entertainment that appeals to all ages
  3. an acceptance of conventional narratives in favor of abstraction
  4. a reliance on a musical score to help tell the story
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Correct Response: A. Physical theater focuses on telling a story using primarily physical means that can include hand gestures, body language, synchronized movement, mask work, and prop manipulation. It is connected to dance by its emphasis on the manipulation of the performers' bodies over spoken language, although dance often favors a more abstract presentation.