TERMINALE LV1 · UPPER SECONDARY · B2 to C1 · C1/C2 extension track in every session

Oral questioning

How it works

The teacher, or a student, asks the questions. Answer in full sentences, then ask a follow-up question to your partner. Change roles every three questions.

Questions to answer orally

  1. Where and when does the play take place?
  2. Why does Abigail accuse Elizabeth?
  3. What is spectral evidence?
  4. Why does Elizabeth lie in court?
  5. Why does Hale change his mind?
  6. Why did Miller write the play in the 1950s?
  7. Why does Proctor tear his confession?
  8. What is a modern witch hunt?
Model answers
  1. In Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692.
  2. She is jealous and wants to take her place with John Proctor.
  3. A girl claims to see the spirit of the accused attacking her; nobody else can see it.
  4. To protect her husband's reputation; tragically, it destroys his defence.
  5. He sees that private vengeance drives the accusations, and he denounces the court.
  6. To denounce McCarthyism and the HUAC hearings, where people were asked to name names.
  7. He refuses to lose his name and to betray the others who die innocent.
  8. A collective accusation without proof, for example an online pile-on.

Question forms: ask the question

Write the question that matches each answer. The underlined words are the answer.

  1. The trials took place in 1692.
  2. Abigail accuses Elizabeth because she is jealous.
  3. Danforth runs the court.
  4. Miller appeared before HUAC in 1956.
  5. Proctor tears his confession.
  6. Nineteen people were hanged at Gallows Hill.
Answer key
  1. When did the trials take place?
  2. Why does Abigail accuse Elizabeth?
  3. Who runs the court?
  4. When did Miller appear before HUAC?
  5. What does Proctor tear?
  6. Where were nineteen people hanged?
Sentence starters

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