Tag: Quiz

✧ Welcome to Muse’s games and quizzes ✧ 
This is where stories meet play; from guessing first lines to decoding book titles in emojis, this page is all about literature with a twist. Take a break, test your instincts, and have fun with words, characters, and everything between.

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Bookish DNA : What’s Your Vibe?

Find out what kind of story mirrors your soul.

1. Which of these moods best matches your writing style?
   ☁. Brooding but romantic
   ✿. Curious and symbolic
   ★. Sharp and cynical
   ❤. Quiet but intense
   
2. What would you most likely obsess over while writing?
   ☁. Your characters’ unspoken desires
   ✿. The shape and rhythm of your sentences
   ★. Whether your plot feels disturbingly plausible
   ❤. The small moments that change everything
   
3. Which sentence sounds like it could start your story?
   ☁. “There was something in the silence that felt ancient.”
   ✿. “She found it by accident, tucked between two worlds.”
   ★. “The warnings came too late, as they always do.”
   ❤. “It began with nothing remarkable, and ended the same.”
   
4. Your favorite metaphor would involve…
   ☁. Shadows, mirrors, or blood
   ✿. Clocks, feathers, or dreams
   ★. Glass, wires, or rust
   ❤. Smoke, skin, or paper
   
5. What kind of reader are you trying to reach?
   ☁. Someone who aches for beauty in the dark
   ✿. Someone who still believes in wonder
   ★. Someone who wants to question everything
   ❤. Someone who lives in nuance

Results :

Mostly ☁’s – Gothic Fiction
You are drawn to the flicker between beauty and ruin. Shadows feel like home, and your heart beats to the rhythm of storms and whispered secrets. Your story would rise like mist over the moors, echoing with the fierce passions of Wuthering Heights, the haunted nights of Dracula, and the tragic dreams stitched into Frankenstein.

Mostly ✿’s – Fairytale/Fantasy
You move through life with wonder tucked behind your eyes. The impossible feels natural to you; magic hums beneath the ordinary. Your world would open like a door in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, stretch across distant hills like in The Hobbit, and shimmer with the timeless marvels of The Chronicles of Narnia.

Mostly ★’s – Dystopian Fiction
You are a watcher of the world and a challenger of it too. You see the cracks others ignore, and your spirit bends toward truth and defiance. Your story would smolder in the ruins of broken cities, carrying the quiet resistance of 1984, the chilling predictions of Brave New World, and the fierce hope of The Hunger Games.

Mostly ❤’s – Literary Fiction
You find depth in stillness and poetry in the everyday. Your story would drift between drawing rooms and lonely roads, where love, ambition, and regret leave their indelible marks — just as they do in Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, and To the Lighthouse.

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Once Upon a Sentence

Can you recognise a story from just its first line? Read each opening line carefully – behind a few simple words, an entire world waits. Guess the book that began it all. Answers at the end.

1. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

2. “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

3. “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal thank you very much.”

4. “Call me Ishmael.”

5. “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

6. “Is a truth universally acknowledges, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

7. “All children, except one, grow up.”

8. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

Answers

1. 1984 – George Orwell

2. The Go-Between – L.P. Hartley

3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J.K. Rowling

4. Moby-Dick – Herman Melville

5. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

6. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

7. Peter Pan – J.M. Barrie

8. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

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Emoji Bookshelf

A handful of symbols, a whole world of stories. Find the books hidden in these silent signs. Answers below.

1. 🌪️🏠🟩👠

2. 🪞☕️🐇⏰

3. 👭📖🎭

4. 💌👩🧍‍♂️

5. ♟️👑👩‍🦰

Answers

1. The Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum
2. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Caroll
3. Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
4. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
5. The Queen’s Gambit – Walter Tevis

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Your Mentor, in the Margins

Who’s guiding your pen from beyond the literary veil?

1. What makes writing satisfying for you?
   ☁. Capturing a thought before it disappears
   ✿. Pointing at a truth no one wants to see
   ★. Conjuring a world that doesn’t yet exist
   ❤. Releasing what you feel but can’t say aloud
   
2. Which writing advice speaks to you most?
   ☁. Follow the mind’s current and trust the drift
   ✿. Write it like it’s already banned
   ★. Create a myth they’ll live inside
   ❤. Write with your wounds
   
3. Pick a literary image that stays with you:
   ☁. A hallway of locked doors
   ✿. A paper marked “confidential”
   ★. A sword made of starlight
   ❤. A bird trapped in a storm
   
4. If your story were a place, what would it be?
   ☁. A flickering mirror
   ✿. A room with no exits
   ★. A forest that never ends
   ❤. A cliffside under thunder
   
5. When you get stuck writing, you…
   ☁. Write nonsense until something true appears
   ✿. Scroll the news until a new fear emerges
   ★. Go for a walk and imagine your world breathing
   ❤. Dive into the feeling anyway

Results :

Mostly ☁’s – Virginia Woolf
You are introspective, poetic, and deeply attuned to the inner workings of the human mind. Woolf would inspire you to experiment with stream-of-consciousness writing and explore the beauty of everyday life. Your writing style is fluid, reflective, and emotionally profound – perfect for capturing the fleeting nature of time and memory.

Mostly ✿’s – George Orwell
You are a sharp observer of the world, unafraid to critique society and challenge the status quo. Orwell would push you to write with purpose, clarity, and conviction. Whether through dystopian fiction or political essays, your writing carries weight and meaning – just like 1984 and Animal Farm.

Mostly ★’s – Emily Brontë
You are a passionate, deeply emotional writer with a love for gothic romance and intense storytelling. Emily Brontë would admire your ability to craft haunting, atmospheric tales filled with longing and obsession. She would encourage you to embrace your wild imagination and pour your heart into your writing.

Mostly ❤’s – J.R.R. Tolkien
You are a born world-builder with a vivid imagination and a love for mythology. Tolkien would be your perfect mentor, teaching you how to weave epic tales filled with rich history, adventure, and deep themes. You thrive in stories of grand quests, unlikely heroes, and the eternal battle between good and evil.

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Lines by Hand or Code?

Can you tell the voice of a real author from that of an AI? Each sentence below hides its true origin – guess wisely. Answers below.

1. “There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights.”

2. “The stars have no memory, and that’s why they shine.”

3. “She wept like the rain weeps – not from grief, but from the weight of being.”

4. “I am rooted, but I flow.”

5. “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”

6. “Every mirror holds a different truth, and none of them are yours.”

Answers

1. Dracula – Bram Stoker

2. Artificial Intelligence

3. Artificial Intelligence

4. The Waves – Virginia Woolf

5. The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien

6. Artificial Intelligence

If you prefer filling out this crossword online, here’s the link: Literary Nerd’s Crossword Puzzle – Crossword Labs (but scroll down here for the answers)

Across

• 3. Nonfiction narrative writing based on the author’s personal memories.
• 4. Last name of that famous American female author who wrote a famous novel about four sisters.
• 7. Two successive rhyming lines.
• 10. Pentameter of an unstressed stressed foot.
• 12. The ___ Jar, novel by Sylvia Plath.
• 15. Percy Bysshe Shelley belonged to this literary and artistic movement.
• 16. Frederick ____ , African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, statesman and author of one of the most famous slave narratives.
• 18. Last name of the poet who wrote “The Tyger”, “The Sick Rose” and “A Poison Tree”.
• 19. John Milton lived during this century.
• 21. Last name of the winner of the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature and author of The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying and “A Rose for Emily”.
• 23. A closed form consisting of fourteen lines of rhyming iambic pentameter.
• 24. Last name of female author who wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, And Still I Rise, and Mother.
• 25. Literary genre linked to fear and horror.
• 27. This figure of speech is a deliberate exaggeration that adds emphasis, urgency, or excitement to a statement.
• 28. First name of famous detective whose partner is Dr. Watson.

Down

• 1. Figure of speech that places opposite things or ideas next to one another in order to draw out their contrast.
• 2. Jane Austen’s last complete novel.
• 5. A ____ in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, title inspired by a Langston Hughes poem.
• 6. This figure of speech assigns human attributes to nonhuman things.
• 8. Capote’s first name, author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Cold Blood.
• 9. This novel’s titular character often gets mistaken as the monster’s name. Name that novel/character.
• 11. This Shakespearean character has the same name as that hot-headed talking parrot in Walt Disney’s Aladdin.
• 13. Last name of Victorian Irish author of A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest.
• 14. Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel about a dysfunctional family of formerly enslaved people whose Cincinnati home is haunted by a malevolent spirit.
• 16. Probably the most famous short story about vampires you have ever heard of.
• 17. What colour is the hat worn by Curious George’s owner?
• 20. Last name of the author who wrote The Old Man and the Sea, The Sun Also Rises and A Moveable Feast.
• 22. Musical style originated within African-American communities in the late 19th century; famous composition of this kind of music: “The Entertainer”.
• 26. A ___ Named Desire, play by Tennessee Williams.

*Scroll down for the answers*

Answers:

1. Memoir
2. Romanticism
3. Blake
4. Truman
5. Raisin
6. Antithesis
7. Sherlock
8. Gothic
9. Couplet
10. Persuasion
11. Ragtime
12. Sonnet
13. Douglass
14. Hyperbole
15. Iago
16. Seventeenth
17. Hemingway
18. Faulkner
19. Iambic
20. Beloved
21. “Dracula”
22. Frankenstein
23. Personification
24. Alcott
25. Margaret
26. Yellow
27. Streetcar
28. Wilde
29. Angelou
30. Bell

We have prepared three quizzes for you to find out which badass female Shakespeare character, which evil Shakespearean character and which drama-llama Shakespeare character you are. Enjoy!

Which badass female Shakespeare character are you?

What is your worst flaw?

A. What are you talking about, I’m flawless!

B. I’m too short.

C. I’m too faithful and dedicated to my husband who has trust issues with me.

D. I look like my brother.

Are you in love?

A. I don’t know what you’re talking about.

B. Yes, with my boyfriend but my father doesn’t approve of him.

C. Yes, with my husband but we’re having issues right now.

D. Yes, but he’s in love with someone else (sighs).

Do you believe in true love?

A. Honestly, what is your deal with love?!

B. Of course I do and I’d do anything to protect it!

C. I thought I did but my husband’s strange behaviour is making me doubt the relationship.

D. I truly do but things are a bit complicated with my crush right now…

Do you have any impressive skills?

A. I can beat your ass at a battle of wits.

B. I have all the men fall in love with me without me even trying.

C. My commitment to others is as firm as a rock.

D. I can pretend to be a man.  

What is your guilty pleasure?

A. Coming up with smart insults.

B. Provoking my father.

C. I’m afraid I have none.

D. Pretending to be a man.

 

If you got mostly A. you are Beatrice from Much Ado about Nothing! Beatrice is Leonato’s niece and Hero’s cousin. Unlike her cousin and most women of their time, she is feisty, cynical, witty and sharp. However, Beatrice also has a softer and more vulnerable side. During the play she is tricked into falling in love with Benedick, a soldier with whom she has a “merry war”, basically an exchange of witty insults. She is a strong character for she refuses to marry because she has not discovered the perfect, equal partner and because she is unwilling to eschew her liberty and submit to the will of a controlling husband. When Hero has been humiliated and accused of violating her chastity, Beatrice explodes with fury at Claudio for mistreating her cousin. In her frustration and rage about Hero’s mistreatment, Beatrice rebels against the unequal status of women in Renaissance society. She has often been described as a protofeminist character.

If you got mostly B. you are Hermia from A Midsummer Night’s Dream! Hermia is a strong-willed and brave young woman who at the start of the play stands up to her father to defend her love for Lysander. When things start to get rocky, the two lovers run away in the forest, followed by Demetrius and Helena and where Puck interferes and causes a heated mess between the lovers. In the end all turns out well and Hermia is allowed to live happily ever after with her beloved Lysander.

If you got mostly C. you are Desdemona from Othello! Desdemona is the daughter of Brabantio (a Venetian senator) and Othello’s wife. Desdemona is a courageous young woman defending her husband against her father’s racist disapproval and she remains faithful to her husband until her very last breath. She thinks the best of people and gives everyone a chance. She is also an extremely caring and empathetic character.

If you got mostly D. you are Viola from Twelfth Night! Viola survives a shipwreck at the start of the play which separates her from her twin brother Sebastian and she ends up on shore in Illyria. There she decides to cross-dress as a man and to take a job at Duke Orsino’s court. As the boy servant, “Cesario,” Viola quickly becomes Orsino’s favorite page and is given the task of wooing Olivia on Orsino’s behalf. As “Cesario,” Viola’s a little too good at her job and she finds herself in the middle of a messy love triangle when Olivia falls in love with “Cesario,” who can’t return the Countess’s favors because Viola is in love with the Duke. I promise you, it all works out in the end.

Which evil Shakespeare character are you?

What is your guilty pleasure?

A. Nagging my spouse.

B. Wooing my brother’s wife.

C. Manipulating people, duh.

D. Plotting murder. 

What are you most skilled in?

A. Pep talks.

B. Pathologically lying.

C. Gaslighting.

D. Turning someone into a hitman. 

What is your worst flaw?

A. I married a coward.

B. Murderous tendencies.

C. I have none. I’m perfect, don’t you see?

D. Jealousy. 

What is your biggest fear?

A. That I won’t become queen of Scotland (I deserve it).

B. That my nephew will come after me for murdering his father (my brother).

C. Failing to manipulate people, it’s so entertaining, mouahahaha.

D. Caesar ruling one more day. 

Do you believe in love?

A. There’s no such thing, I only believe in power.

B. Love? What is that?

C. In other people yes, and boy, don’t I love ruining romantic relationships.

D. Don’t have the time for the affairs of the heart. 

If you got mostly A. you are Lady Macbeth from Macbeth! Lady Macbeth is the wife of the play’s tragic hero, Macbeth (a Scottish nobleman). She encourages her husband to commit regicide and consequently becomes queen of Scotland. She’s got quite some power over her husband as she manipulates him to do as she pleases, especially when it comes to killing others. After he becomes a murderous tyrant, surprisingly, Lady Macbeth looses her cool and is driven to madness by guilt and as a result commits suicide.

If you got mostly B. you are Claudius from Hamlet! King Claudius is the brother of King Hamlet, whom he secretly assassinates in order to become king. He then marries his brother’s wife, Gertrude, and becomes Prince Hamlet’s stepfather. Prince Hamlet finds out about the assassination once his father’s ghost pays him a visit and plans to kill him. Claudius gets suspicious about Hamlet once he starts behaving all weird and hires his childhood friends to keep an eye on him. Claudius eventually comes up with a plan that will kill Hamlet but ends up slain by him right before he dies.  

If you got mostly C. you are Iago from Othello! Iago is Othello’s standard-bearer and trusted advisor but he hates his guts. He plans to destroy him through manipulation by making him believe that his wife Desdemona is having an affair with his lieutenant, Michael Cassio. Iago is one of Shakespeare’s most sinister villains, often considered such because of the unique trust that Othello places in him, which he betrays while maintaining his reputation for honesty and dedication. Iago is a Machiavellian schemer and manipulator, as he is often referred to as “honest Iago”, displaying his skill at deceiving other characters so that not only do they not suspect him, but they count on him as the person most likely to be truthful.

If you got mostly D. you are Cassius from Julius Caesar! Cassius is the leader and organizer of the assassination plot to kill Julius Caesar, the emperor of Rome. Motivated by his envy and jealousy over Caesar’s rise to power, Cassius manipulates others to join him. A keen letter writer, Cassius forges letters from dissatisfied citizens to influence Brutus, a fellow senator and general. Cassius had been Caesar’s friend for much of their lives; in addition, Cassius served as a capable general under Caesar.

Which drama-llama Shakespeare character are you?

You identify as:

A. A spaniel and a bit of an emotional roller coaster to be honest.

B. A hilarious person.

C. The worthy heir to the throne.

D. A master procrastinator.

Do you have any best friends?

A. I used to when I was little but my crush is now pining after her so we’re not on speaking terms.

B. Does plotting murder together make us best buds?

C. What is that?

D. I might have, like, two friends, but I don’t even bother remembering their names right.

What is your relationship status?

A. A situationship, I guess (sighs).

B. Single like a happy pringle!

C. I’m married to my terrifying spouse.

D. I have a girlfriend, but I have more important things to deal with right now! Stop distracting me!

When were you at your lowest?

A. When I slept with this dude who didn’t even love me back.

B. Whenever I have to deal with storms (they’re scary!).

C. When I lost my wife who was my rock whenever I freaked out about all the crimes I committed.

D. When I accidentally killed my girlfriend’s dad thinking he was my treacherous uncle!

In times of trouble you tend to…

A. Run after my lover in the forest, duh.

B. There’s no trouble anymore if you runaway and disappear, right?

C. I freak out to my wife.

D. I ruminate and wear black clothes (I’m in my emo era).

If you got mostly A. you are Helena from A Midsummer Night’s Dream! Helena is a young Athenian who at the start of the play is in love with Demetrius who is in love with another gal. Regardless, Helena stands her ground and remains committed to her lover. She’s a bit of an emotional rollercoaster and takes things to heart, but in the end of the day all she wants is to be loved back. And in the end she succeeds!

If you got mostly B. you are Caska from Julius Caesar! Caska is one of the conspirators against Julius Ceaser who assassinated him. He’s quite dramatic, terrified of the weather and extremely superstitious. Cassius describes him as smarter than what he appears to be and decides he will be the first to stab Caesar. Caska fled from Rome after the assassination.

If you got mostly C. you are Macbeth from Macbeth! You guessed it, Macbeth is the protagonist of his eponymous play. Now, he’s a bit of a mess: when he is told that he is to become king, he starts killing in order for that to become true. But it comes at a cost as his conscious awakes and he gets eaten up with guilt. Now, you’d think that he would stop killing after this, but nooooo, he continues doing just that in order to remain king. Lady Macbeth, his emotional support system in this bloody business is the only one that manages to make Macbeth stick to his plan whenever he’s about to lose it…until she loses it herself.

If you got mostly D. you are Hamlet from Hamlet! Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark and mourns his father at the start of the play, dresses in black and is kind of the equivalent of a teenager going through his emo phase. When he finds out his uncle killed his father and is required from his father’s ghost to avenge his death, Hamlet starts to slowly but surely lose it… He spends sleepless nights ruminating and going through one existential crises after another, harasses his girlfriend and mother, kills the wrong person, and so on.

Image: ©️ USA-Reiseblogger – Pixabay Licence. Source.

Complete the titles or authors’ names of the following works: 

I Know Why the ___ ___ Sings by Maya Angelou

The ___ Land by T. S. Eliot

Moby Dick by ______ _____

___ Lost by John Milton

“The ___ Speaks of ___ ” by Langston Hughes

Little Women by _____ ________

The ___ Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Le Morte d’Arthur by _____ _____

A Rose for Emily by ______ _____

Pick the right answer for the ending of each of these stanzas:

From William Blake’s “The Tyger”:

What the hammer? what the chain,

In what furnace was thy brain?

________________________

________________________

1. And when thy heart began to beat, / What dread hand? & what dread feet?
2. What the anvil? what dread grasp, / Dare its deadly terrors clasp!
3. What immortal hand or eye, / Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

From Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death”

We paused before a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground –

The Roof was scarcely visible –

________________________

4. We passed the Setting Sun –
5. My Tippet – only Tulle –
6. The Cornice – in the Ground –

From Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”

 And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,

And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

_______________________________________________

            ___________________

7. Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door— / Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
8. Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;— / This it is and nothing more.
9. And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor / Shall be lifted—nevermore!

Guess the work and author the following summaries come from:

Emotionally damaged young adult boy drops out of school, consistantly rants about adults being a bunch of fakes, befriends a prostitute and a couple of nuns and keeps nagging everybody else about the ducks from Central Park asking them where the hell do they all go in the winter. Last but not least, he desires to preserve a child’s innocence. 

Answer: ________________________

Young prince deals with an existential crisis while his widowed mother marries his uncle (who we don’t like by the way) and his father’s ghost visits him every now and then to spook him into avenging his death. And of course, his solution to it all is (drumroll please) to pretend to go all nuts, procrastinating on killing his uncle, accidently stabbing the wrong dude, dramatically harassing his mom, driving his ex to insanity, and talking to himself instead of taking action. 

Answer: ________________________

** Scroll down to see the answers :)

Answers:

First quiz:

• Caged Bird
• Waste
• Herman Melville
• Paradise
• Negro ; Rivers
• Louisa May Alcott
• Canterbury
• Thomas Malory
• William Faulkner

Second quiz:

• For Blake’s “The Tyger” : 2.
• For Dickinson’s poem: 6.
• For Poe’s “Raven”: 9.

Last quiz:

• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Image: © Lex Rodriguez

Authors: Oscar Jordan & Lex Rodriguez

 

 

I think all English students will agree when MUSE says that the English Department wins the “who has the best Unil staff?” competition ;) If you want to know which staff member’s tastes resemble yours the most, take this quiz to find out! If your curiosity still asks for more, fear not, you can always check our two previous quizzes with other fabulous staff members here: part 1 and part 2. Enjoy!