The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, The Story of the Hard Nut quiz

From The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffmann

Chapter 7 of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King: Drosselmeier's tale of Princess Pirlipat, Dame Mouseyrinks, the nut Crackatook, and how Nutcracker was cursed.

13 questions · about 14 minutes

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Questions and answers

  1. Question 1. What happens to the Lord High Chancellor two hours after Pirlipat is born?

    • Correct answer: He is bitten in the fingers by the baby princess
    • He is knighted for announcing the princess's birth
    • He is scratched by one of the purring nursery cats
    • He is sent away for doubting the princess's beauty

    Pirlipat was born with two rows of pearly teeth and bit the Chancellor while he examined her features, which the realm took as a sign of her intelligence.

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  2. Question 2. Which of these events happen on the first evening of Drosselmeier's tale?

    • The king invites the visiting kings to what he calls a basin of soup.

      Happened

    • The privy council punishes the queen for giving away the fat.

      Didn't happen

    • The queen makes the puddings and sausages with her own hands.

      Happened

    • Dame Mouseyrinks bites the king's finger during the banquet.

      Didn't happen

    • The queen drops a fricassée into the fire when Dame Mouseyrinks appears.

      Happened

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  3. Question 3. How is the little fat left by the mice shared out among the sausages?

    • The queen stirs it in with the king's golden sceptre
    • The head cook melts it and pours a little over every dish
    • Correct answer: The court mathematician divides it with special apparatus
    • The mistress of the robes weighs it out on silver scales

    The court mathematician uses a specially devised apparatus with micrometer screws to spread the remaining fat across all the sausages.

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  4. Question 4. Why is the silence in the nursery so alarming when the chief nurse wakes?

    • The guards at the nursery doors have all left their posts
    • Correct answer: The cats have stopped purring, so the guard has failed
    • The princess has stopped breathing in her little cradle
    • The palace clock has stopped striking the hours of night

    The purring of the Cat Purr family was the only protection against Dame Mouseyrinks; with no purr to be heard, she has reached the cradle.

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  5. Question 5. According to the narrator, what should the king have seen after the curse fell?

    • That more nurses were needed to guard the cradle by night
    • Correct answer: That he should have eaten his puddings with no fat in them
    • That the court astronomer had misread the stars from the start
    • That Dame Mouseyrinks deserved a fair trial for the theft

    The narrator says it would have been much better to eat his puddings without fat and let the mice stay under the hearthstone, but the king blamed Drosselmeier instead.

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  6. Question 6. What reward does the king promise Drosselmeier when he announces the cure?

    • A golden chain, a country estate, and a royal carriage
    • A seat on the privy council and a pension for his life
    • The hand of a duchess and a fine castle in Nürnberg
    • Correct answer: A diamond sword, four decorations, and two Sunday suits

    Overjoyed at the news, the king embraces Drosselmeier and promises him a diamond sword, four decorations and two Sunday suits.

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  7. Question 7. How did Drosselmeier's cousin come to own the gilded nut?

    • Correct answer: He bought it from a stranger whose sack of nuts was crushed
    • He found it hidden inside a doll he had been asked to repaint
    • He won it from a local nut-seller in a Christmas wager
    • He was handed it by a traveler from Asia as a present

    A stranger's sack was crushed by a heavy wagon, and he sold the one surviving nut to the cousin for a twenty-kreuzer piece of the year 1796.

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  8. Question 8. Why does the astronomer have a strong pigtail fitted to young Drosselmeier?

    • To make him look like a proper courtier before the king
    • To keep his eyes from opening during the backward steps
    • Correct answer: To give his lower jaw a powerful pull to crack the nut
    • To hide every trace of his old life as a Jumping Jack

    The pigtail is connected to his lower jaw so it can give it a very powerful pull; he proves it by cracking the hardest peach-stones.

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  9. Question 9. Why must young Drosselmeier reach the palace well after the other suitors?

    • So the king will be in a good temper after a fine dinner
    • Correct answer: So that after others fail, the king will promise his daughter
    • So the princess cannot see him before the nut is ready
    • So Dame Mouseyrinks will not learn the nut has been found

    The horoscope shows that if two or three others bite at the nut unsuccessfully first, the king will promise the princess's hand and the crown to whoever cracks it.

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  10. Question 10. Which of these events happen on the third evening of Drosselmeier's tale?

    • Drosselmeier says he spent two years at the court of the King of Dates.

      Happened

    • The Natural History Society at Squirreltown gives Drosselmeier the nut.

      Didn't happen

    • Princes are among the young gentlemen who try to crack the nut.

      Happened

    • Young Drosselmeier opens his eyes too soon to look at the princess.

      Didn't happen

    • The king banishes the clockmaker and the astronomer forever.

      Happened

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  11. Question 11. What does 'importunate' mean in: 'Most fortunately the mistress of the robes came in, and drove these importunate visitors away'?

    • Correct answer: Persistent and pushy in demanding something
    • Unexpected and arriving with no warning
    • Important and high-ranking at the court
    • Frightened and eager to escape at once

    Importunate means troublesomely persistent; the mice keep pressing for fat until the mistress of the robes drives them off.

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  12. Question 12. What does 'ignominy' mean in: 'how the Prince of Almonds had expelled him with ignominy from his territory'?

    • Great haste, with no time to pack
    • A heavy fine paid in gold coins
    • Correct answer: Public shame and deep disgrace
    • An armed guard on either side

    Ignominy is public shame or humiliation; Drosselmeier was thrown out of the prince's land in disgrace.

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  13. Question 13. What does 'transmogrified' mean in: 'Oh misery!—all in an instant he was transmogrified, just as the princess had been before'?

    • Struck dumb and unable to speak a word
    • Thrown into a deep, unbreakable sleep
    • Carried off by force to another land
    • Correct answer: Changed into a strange, grotesque form

    Transmogrified means transformed in a surprising or grotesque way, as young Drosselmeier becomes a misshapen nutcracker.

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Next: The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, Uncle and Nephew