Cloze Text - The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde
The text is a synopsis of The Importance of Being Earnest, a celebrated, funny comedy written by Oscar Wilde in 1895.Read the text once or twice. Be sure you understand most of it, then make a choice in the various "Select" fields, then click "Show Solutions" to see the correct answer. [If you find the text difficult, you might read the Solutions first, then try the exercise.]
Study the Words to insert:
Section One
always= sempre -- country= campagna -- expected= attesi/e -- flat= appartamento -- had left= aveva lasciato -- in love= innamorato -- late= fu -- reads= dice -- uncle= zio -- will= testamento -- younger= minore
Section Two
applying= chiedere -- delighted= estasiato -- gave= diede -- has lost= ha perso -- husband= marito -- invalid= invalido -- propose= dichiararsi -- starts= inizia -- takes= porta -- ticket= biglietto -- was found= fu trovato -- wished= desiderato
Section Three
claiming= dichiarando -- diary= diario -- discovery= scoperta -- flight= fuga -- has died= è morto -- lasts= dura -- manners= maniere -- mourning= lutto -- pounds= sterline -- resumed= ripresa -- to agree to= approvare -- whose= il cui
Section Four
actually= in realtà -- baby = neonato -- christened= battezzato -- cloak room= guardaroba -- guilty= colpevole -- handbag= borsa -- later= in seguito -- left= aveva lasciato -- manuscript= manoscritto -- morning= mattina -- realizes= comprende -- refuses= rifiuta
always= sempre -- country= campagna -- expected= attesi/e -- flat= appartamento -- had left= aveva lasciato -- in love= innamorato -- late= fu -- reads= dice -- uncle= zio -- will= testamento -- younger= minore
Section Two
applying= chiedere -- delighted= estasiato -- gave= diede -- has lost= ha perso -- husband= marito -- invalid= invalido -- propose= dichiararsi -- starts= inizia -- takes= porta -- ticket= biglietto -- was found= fu trovato -- wished= desiderato
Section Three
claiming= dichiarando -- diary= diario -- discovery= scoperta -- flight= fuga -- has died= è morto -- lasts= dura -- manners= maniere -- mourning= lutto -- pounds= sterline -- resumed= ripresa -- to agree to= approvare -- whose= il cui
Section Four
actually= in realtà -- baby = neonato -- christened= battezzato -- cloak room= guardaroba -- guilty= colpevole -- handbag= borsa -- later= in seguito -- left= aveva lasciato -- manuscript= manoscritto -- morning= mattina -- realizes= comprende -- refuses= rifiuta
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Section One
The play opens in the morning room in Algernon Moncrieff's flat in Half Moon Street. John (a.k.a. Jack, a.k.a. Ernest) Worthing has come to visit his friend Algernon Moncrieff. Ernest is in love with Algernon's cousin Gwendolen Fairfax, who is, together with her Aunt Augusta (Lady Bracknell), expected for tea. Algy questions Jack as to the meaning of an inscription in his cigarette case, which Jack had left in Algy's rooms. The inscription reads: "From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack"
Jack explains how he was adopted as a little boy by the late Mr Thomas Cardew, who made him in his will guardian to his grand-daughter Miss Cecily Cardew. Cecily, who addresses him as uncle, lives at Jack's place in the country under the charge of her governess, Miss Prism. In order to get up London Jack has invented a younger brother of the name of Ernest, who lives in the Albany and always gets into trouble.
Section Two
Algy is delighted: as Jack has invented a brother to be able to come up to town, so he has invented an invalid friend called Bunbury in order that he can escape into the country. These explanations are interrupted by a ring at the doorbell: Aunt Augusta and Gwendolen. Algy takes his aunt into another room thus giving Jack a chance to propose. Gwendolen accepts him because she has always wished to marry someone of the name of Ernest.
In the middle of his proposal he is discovered by Lady Bracknell, who sends Gwendolen away and starts questioning 'Ernest' to discover his eligibility as a husband. During this interview Jack admits that he has lost both his parents, or rather they seem to have lost him, since he was found by the late Mr Thomas Cardew in a handbag in the cloakroom at Victoria Station. As that gentleman happened to have a first class ticket for Worthing in his pocket, he gave him the name of Worthing. Lady Bracknell does not like Jack's story and she orders him to find one or both parents before again applying to her for permission to marry Gwendolen.
Section Three
Act III opens in the garden at the Manor House, Woolton. Algy arrives claiming to be Ernest Worthing. Cecily, Jack's ward, is very taken with him. He proposes to her only to find that, according to her diary, they have been engaged on and off for the last three months. It has always been Cecily's dream to love someone whose name was Ernest. At this point Jack arrives in the deepest mourning, claiming that his brother Ernest has died in Paris. He is hardly pleased to be confronted with a flesh and blood brother.
Also Gwendolen arrives, and she become instantly bosom friends with Cecily. This friendship lasts until they discover that they are both engaged to Ernest Worthing. There is a confrontation between Cecily's country manners and Gwendolen's society sophistication. The quarrel ends and the interrupted friendship is resumed after the entry of Jack and Algernon with the resulting discovery that there is no Ernest Worthing.
Lady Bracknell, having been informed of her daughter's flight by Gwendolen's maid, has followed her. On discovering that Miss Cecily Cardew has about a hundred and thirty thousand pounds in fund, she is prepared to agree to her engagement with Algy.
Section Four
But Jack, still forbidden to aspire to Gwendolen, refuses his consent. The impasse is resolved by the discovery of a guilty secret of Miss Prism, Cecily's governess. Twenty-eigth years before she left Lord Bracknell's house in Upper Grosvenor Street with a perambulator that contained a baby of the male sex. She never returned. The perambulator was later discovered containing the manuscript of a three-volume novel.
What had actually happened? On that morning Miss Prism had with herself a handbag in which she intended to place the manuscript. In a moment of mental abstraction she placed the manuscript in the basinette and the baby in the handbag, then she deposited the handbag in the cloak room of Victoria Station. This means that Jack is Algy's long-lost elder brother, and, as he was christened Ernest John, Gwendolen's conditions are Jack-John-Ernest realizes for the first time in his life the "vital Importance of Being Earnest".
The play opens in the morning room in Algernon Moncrieff's flat in Half Moon Street. John (a.k.a. Jack, a.k.a. Ernest) Worthing has come to visit his friend Algernon Moncrieff. Ernest is in love with Algernon's cousin Gwendolen Fairfax, who is, together with her Aunt Augusta (Lady Bracknell), expected for tea. Algy questions Jack as to the meaning of an inscription in his cigarette case, which Jack had left in Algy's rooms. The inscription reads: "From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack"
Jack explains how he was adopted as a little boy by the late Mr Thomas Cardew, who made him in his will guardian to his grand-daughter Miss Cecily Cardew. Cecily, who addresses him as uncle, lives at Jack's place in the country under the charge of her governess, Miss Prism. In order to get up London Jack has invented a younger brother of the name of Ernest, who lives in the Albany and always gets into trouble.
Section Two
Algy is delighted: as Jack has invented a brother to be able to come up to town, so he has invented an invalid friend called Bunbury in order that he can escape into the country. These explanations are interrupted by a ring at the doorbell: Aunt Augusta and Gwendolen. Algy takes his aunt into another room thus giving Jack a chance to propose. Gwendolen accepts him because she has always wished to marry someone of the name of Ernest.
In the middle of his proposal he is discovered by Lady Bracknell, who sends Gwendolen away and starts questioning 'Ernest' to discover his eligibility as a husband. During this interview Jack admits that he has lost both his parents, or rather they seem to have lost him, since he was found by the late Mr Thomas Cardew in a handbag in the cloakroom at Victoria Station. As that gentleman happened to have a first class ticket for Worthing in his pocket, he gave him the name of Worthing. Lady Bracknell does not like Jack's story and she orders him to find one or both parents before again applying to her for permission to marry Gwendolen.
Section Three
Act III opens in the garden at the Manor House, Woolton. Algy arrives claiming to be Ernest Worthing. Cecily, Jack's ward, is very taken with him. He proposes to her only to find that, according to her diary, they have been engaged on and off for the last three months. It has always been Cecily's dream to love someone whose name was Ernest. At this point Jack arrives in the deepest mourning, claiming that his brother Ernest has died in Paris. He is hardly pleased to be confronted with a flesh and blood brother.
Also Gwendolen arrives, and she become instantly bosom friends with Cecily. This friendship lasts until they discover that they are both engaged to Ernest Worthing. There is a confrontation between Cecily's country manners and Gwendolen's society sophistication. The quarrel ends and the interrupted friendship is resumed after the entry of Jack and Algernon with the resulting discovery that there is no Ernest Worthing.
Lady Bracknell, having been informed of her daughter's flight by Gwendolen's maid, has followed her. On discovering that Miss Cecily Cardew has about a hundred and thirty thousand pounds in fund, she is prepared to agree to her engagement with Algy.
Section Four
But Jack, still forbidden to aspire to Gwendolen, refuses his consent. The impasse is resolved by the discovery of a guilty secret of Miss Prism, Cecily's governess. Twenty-eigth years before she left Lord Bracknell's house in Upper Grosvenor Street with a perambulator that contained a baby of the male sex. She never returned. The perambulator was later discovered containing the manuscript of a three-volume novel.
What had actually happened? On that morning Miss Prism had with herself a handbag in which she intended to place the manuscript. In a moment of mental abstraction she placed the manuscript in the basinette and the baby in the handbag, then she deposited the handbag in the cloak room of Victoria Station. This means that Jack is Algy's long-lost elder brother, and, as he was christened Ernest John, Gwendolen's conditions are Jack-John-Ernest realizes for the first time in his life the "vital Importance of Being Earnest".