Listening Comprehension Questions:

1.  What were morality plays of the Middle Ages?

2.  How did morality plays differ from Greek and Roman plays?

3.  How does the main character of a morality play differ from most plays?

4.  What do morality characters represent?

5.  What is the term personified mean?

[Lesson Credits:  Listening Building MP3 TOEFL, Track 18]

05 Literature

W: Today, we’re going to talk about the morality plays of the Middle Ages. These were plays in which the main character had to choose between right and wrong choices. They differed a lot from Greek and Roman plays. First off, morality plays didn’t really deal with complex characters. They also . . . yes, Tom, did you have a question?

M: Yeah, what do you mean that morality plays didn’t have complex characters?

W: Well, in most plays, the characters have personalities, feelings, likes, and dislikes. But the main character of morality plays is different. Instead of having a character that’s an individual, its main character represents humanity as a whole. He’s called “Everyman.” Everyman’s supposed to represent each and every man in general. Now, the other characters in the play weren’t traditional characters either. Instead, they were morals. They represented virtues and vices . . . you still look confused, Tom.

W: Okay. Take the villain of the play. Every play has to have a villain. But the villain in morality plays was always something like Greed. Now, in morality plays, Greed would be personified. Um, he would act like an actual person instead of a characteristic. He would try to persuade Everyman into following an evil path. Remember that in earlier plays, the downfall of the main character was always some flaw within himself. But in morality plays, Everyman actually encounters Greed like you or I would encounter an actual person. Everyman then has a choice to make. He can choose to follow Greed, or he can choose to do the right thing.

Interview Questions:

1. You are supposed to teach the first grade of middle school class in the following year. Your class has some special features to be taken into account. The class is composed of twenty boys and fifteen girls and the school is located near the traditional market in a poor district. Most of the parents of your students did not get higher education and a large number of mothers are working as fathers. On the consideration of these conditions, provoide the ways to teach this class.

2. Suppose that you are a newly appointed teacher and your school is well-equipped with the brand-new ICT. However, your class is divided into two groups representing the extreme ends of academic performance and a number of students are unable to adjust to school lives. How would you deal with this class as a subject teacher and a homeroom teacher respectively?