William Shakespeare · free
Macbeth: act checks
5 checks, 40 questions, answer key with the line of the text behind each answer, and a rubric for each written answer.
Checks
- Act 1
- Act 2
- Act 3
- Act 4
- Act 5
Two questions from Act 1
1. According to the wounded Captain, what did Macbeth do to the rebel Macdonwald?
- A Captured him and sent him to Duncan for trial
- B Drove him back by sea to the Western Isles
- C Split him open and set his head on the battlements
- D Wounded him and let him flee to the Norwegian camp
Answer key
C. The Captain reports that Macbeth cut Macdonwald open "from the nave to the chops" and fixed his head on the battlements; the rebel was neither captured nor allowed to escape.
2. Speaking of the executed Thane of Cawdor, Duncan says, "There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face." Why is this line ironic as Macbeth enters right after it?
- A Duncan is about to trust another man whose looks hide treacherous thoughts
- B Duncan has already guessed that Macbeth wants the crown
- C Cawdor actually died without confessing any of his crimes
- D Macbeth has come to plead for Cawdor's life and title
Answer key
A. Duncan admits he was fooled by Cawdor and at once heaps trust on Macbeth, who in the same scene hides his "black and deep desires"; Malcolm reports that Cawdor did confess, so C is false.
What you get
- Student checks (PDF, US Letter). Name, date and score lines; each check starts on a new page.
- Answer key (PDF, kept apart). The right letter, one line on why, and the line of the text that proves it. A 2-1-0 rubric for every written answer.
- Canvas and Schoology. A QTI 1.2 ZIP: one quiz per check, multiple choice graded automatically.
- Google Forms. A CSV and a short script that turns it into one self-grading quiz per check, in your own Drive.
- Any other quiz tool. The same CSV: question, options A to D, right answer, points, rubric.
Edition and public-domain status
Text used: Project Gutenberg eBook #1533 (gutenberg.org/ebooks/1533). William Shakespeare died in 1616 and the work was first published in 1623 (First Folio): public domain in the United States, and under the stricter rule we apply for sales abroad (author dead before 1925). Questions refer to acts and scenes, not pages.