Praxis Speech and Theatre (5222)

1. Question 1 · Communication Fundamentals and Media

   During a unit on health careers, a speech teacher tells students that a guest speaker will discuss "PT." Half the class expects a talk about physical therapy; the other half expects one about personal training. Which type of noise BEST explains the confusion?
   • A.Physical noise
   • B.Physiological noise
   • C.Psychological noise
   • D.Semantic noise
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: D. Semantic noise

   Semantic noise arises when sender and receiver attach different meanings to the same symbol, as with the abbreviation "PT." Psychological noise would involve the students' biases, worries, or emotional states, and physical noise would be an external disturbance such as a hallway bell, neither of which is described here.

2. Question 2 · Interpersonal and Group Communication

   A married couple who work at the same company agree to be strictly independent at work, never lunching together or discussing each other's projects, but to share nearly everything at home. This approach to the autonomy-connection dialectic is BEST described as
   • A.cyclic alternation
   • B.denial
   • C.segmentation
   • D.reframing
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: C. segmentation

   Segmentation manages a dialectical tension by assigning each pole to a different domain or context, here autonomy at work and connection at home. Cyclic alternation shifts between the poles over time (a period of closeness followed by a period of independence), and reframing redefines the tension so that the poles no longer seem opposed.

3. Question 3 · Public Speaking and Debate

   During a practice round, a student repeatedly says "gonna," "wanna," and "dunno" instead of "going to," "want to," and "don't know." How should the coach BEST classify this problem?
   • A.Poor articulation: sounds are slurred or dropped
   • B.A pronunciation error: words are stressed wrongly
   • C.A regional dialect that needs no correction
   • D.Weak projection: the voice lacks enough volume
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: A. Poor articulation: sounds are slurred or dropped

   Articulation is the physical production of distinct speech sounds; running words together and dropping sounds, as in "gonna" and "dunno," is an articulation problem. Pronunciation concerns the accepted sounds and accent of a word (for example, saying "artic" for "arctic"), and projection concerns volume rather than clarity.

4. Question 4 · Creating and Performing

   Two acting students sit facing each other. One says, "You're frowning." The other answers, "I'm frowning," and they keep repeating and changing the phrase in response to small shifts in each other's behavior. This exercise comes from the training of
   • A.Lee Strasberg
   • B.Sanford Meisner
   • C.Michael Chekhov
   • D.Konstantin Stanislavski
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: B. Sanford Meisner

   The repetition exercise is the base of Meisner's technique, training actors to respond truthfully and spontaneously to a partner instead of planning line readings. Strasberg's Method relies on sense and affective memory, Stanislavski built his system on given circumstances and objectives, and Chekhov used imagery and the psychological gesture. Only Meisner built training around moment-to-moment partner response.

5. Question 5 · Creating and Performing

   A character keeps a pair of reading glasses in her jacket pocket and takes them out in two scenes. How would a props master MOST likely classify the glasses?
   • A.Personal prop
   • B.Set prop
   • C.Set dressing
   • D.Breakaway prop
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: A. Personal prop

   Personal props are small items carried on a character's body, such as glasses, watches, or wallets, and are often tracked with the costume. Set props are furniture and large pieces, set dressing decorates the environment without being handled, and a breakaway is built to break on cue.

6. Question 6 · Communication Fundamentals and Media

   A director says to a cast member, "You need to be off book by Friday," in a clipped tone in front of the whole cast. Beyond the deadline itself, the remark communicates that the director has authority over the actor. This second layer of meaning is the message's:
   • A.Content dimension
   • B.Denotative meaning
   • C.Decoding process
   • D.Relational dimension
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: D. Relational dimension

   Every message has a content dimension (the literal information, here the deadline) and a relational dimension that signals how communicators see their relationship, such as who has authority. Denotative meaning is a word's dictionary definition, and decoding is the receiver's act of interpreting, not a layer of the message.

7. Question 7 · Interpersonal and Group Communication

   According to Deborah Tannen, a partner who responds to the other's account of a bad day by immediately offering three practical fixes is MOST likely engaging in
   • A.phatic communication
   • B.report talk
   • C.rapport talk
   • D.relational metacommunication
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: B. report talk

   Tannen describes report talk as conversation used to convey information, solve problems, and display competence, a pattern she associates more often with men. Rapport talk uses conversation to build connection and empathy, which the speaker might have preferred, and phatic communication is ritual social talk such as greetings.

8. Question 8 · Public Speaking and Debate

   A student wants to revise the sentence "Many people in our community are affected by food insecurity" to use more concrete language. Which revision BEST achieves that goal?
   • A.Food insecurity is an extremely serious and pressing local issue today.
   • B.Some kids in our town arrive at school with nothing to eat since lunch.
   • C.Numerous individuals locally experience various nutritional challenges.
   • D.Hunger, in all its many forms, touches every corner of our society.
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: B. Some kids in our town arrive at school with nothing to eat since lunch.

   Concrete language names specific, observable people and situations that listeners can picture, such as a child arriving at school hungry. Adding intensifiers such as "extremely serious" does not make language concrete, and phrases like "various nutritional challenges" are even more abstract than the original.

9. Question 9 · Creating and Performing

   A student is uncomfortable reliving painful personal memories to play a grieving mother. Her teacher recommends an approach that breaks with affective memory and draws instead on the actor's imagination and on research into the play's social world and given circumstances. Which acting teacher is MOST associated with this approach?
   • A.Uta Hagen
   • B.Stella Adler
   • C.Sanford Meisner
   • D.Lee Strasberg
   Show answer and explanation

   Answer: B. Stella Adler

   Adler rejected Strasberg's emphasis on affective memory and taught that the actor's imagination, together with close study of the script and its social context, should be the source of performance. Strasberg's Method relies on affective and sense memory. Hagen's substitution also uses the actor's own experiences, and Meisner centers training on truthful response to a partner rather than research into the play's world.

10. Question 10 · Creating and Performing

    A 120-volt circuit is protected by a 20-amp breaker. Which load can the circuit MOST safely carry?
    • A.Four 750-watt fixtures
    • B.Three 575-watt fixtures
    • C.Five 575-watt fixtures
    • D.Three 1,000-watt fixtures
    Show answer and explanation

    Answer: B. Three 575-watt fixtures

    Watts equal volts times amps, so the circuit's capacity is 120 x 20 = 2,400 watts, and good practice keeps the continuous load below that. Three 575-watt fixtures draw 1,725 watts, while the other loads (3,000 or 2,875 watts) exceed the circuit's capacity and would trip the breaker or overheat the wiring.

More free questions: browse every exam.